/ 

REVIEW 



f0 



ELLWOOD FISHER'S LECTURE, 



THE NORTH AID THE SOUTH. 



BY OSGOOD MUSSEY 



CINCINNATI: 

WEIGHT, FISHER & CO. PRINTERS, GAZETTE BUILDINGS. 

1 849. 



By featt slex 

m 25 1908 



REVIEW, &c. 



The ability of Mr. Fisher as a subtle reasoner is well 
known ; nor need we inform those who heard, or have read 
the essay under consideration, that it fully sustains, perhaps 
augments, his previous reputation. 

It would appear an idiosyncrasy peculiar to the school of 
reasoners who are styled metaphysicians, inseparable, per- 
haps, from the nature of their philosophy, to delight in ar- 
gument for argument's sake. In controversy, to be possessed 
of a spirit of reckless self-abandonment, which prompts them 
to give their strongest assistance to the weakest side — to 
make the worse appear the better reason, and to do battle 
best when their cause is most desperate. If the cause is 
lost, it makes no difference ; 

" E'en though vanquished, they can argue still." 

The celebrated Statesman of South Carolina, the acknowl- 
edged head of the political branch of this school, is always 
fighting at the top of his bent, always in forlorn hopes, and 
never with such fierce determination as when there is, ap- 
parently, the least possible chance of success. In some such 
spirit this essay seems to have been conceived. We were 
present at the delivery of the lecture, and shall not soon for- 
get the sensation in the audience, when their well estab- 
lished and supposed definitive belief — opinions founded on 
the evidence of their own outward senses, and upon knowl- 
edge so familiar and so well considered, as to have become 
an inward sense — when these were not only boldly assaulted 
but their truth and justice openly and flatly contradicted — 



4 



the contradiction supported by easy and convincing argu- 
ment, and enforced by a host of statistic evidence, the integ- 
rity of which could not be disputed. Some were indignant, 
some amused, most were puzzled, and all were interested, 
and perhaps astonished. We confess to a mixture of all. 
Nor must we forget the portion, who, favoring the doctrines 
enunciated, were particularly delighted. 

It is necessary sometimes to excite feeling in order to se- 
cure attention, and by provoking the passions, to stimulate 
the mind to the acquisition of information which the rea- 
son may afterward digest at its leisure. But it strikes us 
that the ends of such agitation in this regard are nearly ac- 
complished ; that it is about time that, in discussions upon 
this subject between intelligent individuals, and in mono- 
logues before intelligent audiences, it should be treated with- 
out irritation, and in such a manner as not to produce ir- 
ritation in others. It is scarcely necessary to say that this 
remark is general, and has no reference to Mr Fisher's lec- 
ture. On the contrary, we think both the manner and the 
matter peculiarly appropriate to the transition state in which 
this subject may be at present regarded. 

There is a great body of men of very generous impulses, 
whose motives we must suppose to be pure, but of limited 
acquirements, who, mistaking the instincts of habit for the 
instincts of nature, and the crude results of imperfect educa- 
tion for the operations of reason, style themselves reformers 
— erect themselves into a judiciary on morals, and assume to 
apply their habits and their education as the criterion of all 
human conduct. It is a court without appeal — a court of 
cassation. Their first axiom is, that they are right, and the 
second is like unto it, — that every body else is wrong. These 
two axioms are the whole sum of their system of ethics. 
This class, whose attributes are superficial philanthropy 
and presumption, have long enough given direction to the 
popular excitement on this subject. They have their use in 
times of" agitation," but no question can be settled, until the 
control thereof is taken from their hands ; for with them 
there is no " other side." It is a good thing for these men 



5 



to be taught, once in a while, that all feeling and all reason 
are not upon one side — to be shown that men of different ed- 
ucation, brought up under the operation of different systems, 
— men who are equally honest — equally earnest with them- 
selves, may and do, feel, and reason, differently, and that 
their feeling and reasoning are as legitimate, and entitled to 
as much consideration as their own. It is a good thing for 
them to be taught that there are flaws and imperfections in 
their own political and domestic systems, which, being ac- 
customed, appear natural and just ; that these imperfections, 
hid from their own habituated perceptions, are plain and 
patent to the perceptions of others, whom an opposite con- 
dition of circumstances has taught to regard their own cus- 
toms as best fulfilling the reciprocal relations of societies. To 
this class, portions of Mr. Fisher's essay are evidently directed ; 
and the wounds, if any, inflicted on their self-esteem, are not 
to be regretted. But in both sections, the proportion of men 
who are willing — who desire to reason — is, we think, much 
greater than is generally supposed. These too will find in 
Mr. Fisher's essay, material for much reflection, although we 
are obliged to declare that we can regard it only as a special 
plea. Not that we object to it — it is the other side, which we 
have long desired to see ably and eloquently set forth. No 
process of ratiocination can, however, be profitably con- 
ducted, until the reasoner divest himself, so far as may be 
done, of these cramping influences of habit and education ; 
until he loses sight of premeditated results ; until he is willing 
that an unwelcome truth should occasionally jostle his pre- 
conceived ideas ; until he ceases to argue for confirmation 
or contradiction, and acquires for reflection alone. An ap- 
proximation to this state of candor ought to be sought for in 
all ultimate investigations ; and though we have no preten- 
sions to any great advance in this process of self purifica- 
tion, it shall be our endeavor to conduct this proposed re- 
view with all the impartiality of which we are capable. 

We have not the temerity to enter the field of " subtle dis- 
quisition" against so skilful an antagonist ; we have " none 



G 



of this cunning of 'fence," and shall limit our examination to 
the statistic argument, on which the superstructure is founded. 
The unsoundness of the base being established, will render it 
unnecessary to attempt demolishing the fabric : it must fall 
of itself. 

In statistic evidence, there are two methods of controvert- 
ing an assumed position — one by bringing forward a greater 
display of counter evidence of the same character, and strik- 
ing the balance ; the other, by showing the incapacity of the 
evidence presented. If the former is equally successful, the 
latter is certainly more definitive and satisfactory. We pro- 
pose now to examine, seriatim, merely the statistics adduced, 
and by which the positions assumed are sustained, and to 
endeavor to present them in their more accurate relation to 
the collated mass from which they have been so ingeniously 
excerpted. 

A moderate degree of familiarity with the political statis- 
tics of the United States, would justify a general admission 
that the statistics presented by Mr. Fisher are authentic. 
We have not indeed examined the essay with any contrary 
impression, since the personal character of the author is suf- 
ficient guaranty on this point. Nor do we hesitate to ex- 
press a full confidence that *every substantive fact, brought 
forward as such, with its accompanying qualifications, is as 
capable of demonstration, as is any one isolated fact soever- 
But, if each of these statements, as an individual abstract 
fact, is indisputable, it by no means follows that the deduc- 
tions therefrom are unanswerable. In most cases, they are, 
in our judgment unwarrantable. The first pages of the es- 
say are occupied with comparative and contrastive state- 
ments of the relative wealth and productiveness of the North- 
ern and Southern States, before and since the period when 
" direct taxation was finally abandoned," or rather, as we 
suppose is meant, since the commencement of the present pol- 
icy of protective duties — the "American System." The usual 
complaint is reiterated, that the present relative position of 
the North and the South in regard to commerce and manufac- 



7 



tures, is solely attributable to this change in the domestic 
policy of the country. 

We have no disposition to discuss this matter here, or to 
examine particularly the accompanying statistics. It is at 
best the superficial reason. But if it be either the active or 
prime cause, or both, the South is fairly chargeable with its 
own ruin — with self-incurring all the disadvantages which 
this policy is supposed to have brought upon her. The North 
is in no manner responsible. The change in the domestic pol- 
icy of the country was brought about by the Southern States, 
against the earnest protest and strongest opposition of the 
North. We may add our firm conviction, that there is not a 
single intelligent statesman of the South, of either party, 
representing a slaveholding constituency, and having their 
interests solely in view, who is sincerely desirous of again 
ever reverting to the system of direct taxation. 

We extract from page 19 of the essay, the corollary of the 
argument contained in the pages which precede: 

" I think now that if anything can be shown by facts, I 
have demonstrated the superior wealth of the people of the 
South over those of the North in proportion to their respec- 
tive numbers ; and this, by comparing the less prosperous of 
the South with the most flourishing of the North. And, I 
think I have shown the South to be the most fortunate in the 
distribution or equalization of wealth as well as in its ac- 
quisition. At all events, I have rescued the controversy be- 
tween the two sections, from the control of bold assertion and 
slipshod declamation, and confided it to the umpirage of ar- 
gument and document. 

" There are some who sneer at statistics, and assert that 
any thing can be proved by them. But such expressions, I 
think are peculiar to those who deal in assertion chiefly, and 
find it unpleasant to be answered with facts." 

Before examining the course of reasoning by which this 
conclusion is attained, we must express our admiration at the 
cool adroitness with which the controversial character of the 
disputants on this subject, from the respective sections, 
is reversed. We are given to understand that the po- 
lemic weapons of the North are " slip-shod declamation," — 



8 



those of the South, " argument and document." But how is 
this ? We cannot take, to aid our decision, the rude manner 
and terse phrases in which the unpolished and illiterate of 
either section express their very sincere feelings ; we can- 
not take the Virginia planter, whose sentiments find vent 
in a general anathema on the Yankees for a " pack of nigger 
thieves," nor the country Yankee, who "swans to man" that 
" slavery is the greatest cuss that ever was." These will 
hardly do for a criterion ; nor can we judge from the displays 
of that species of oratory called stump speaking. Such 
positions are not regarded in either section as very favorable 
to the production of " document." We must go to the halls 
of Congress, the arena of national debate, where the intel- 
ligence of each section is supposed to be collected. 

The educational systems of the two sections are elsewhere 
alluded to by Mr. Fisher. We trust we may be permitted to 
retouch his sketch. To say nothing of the difference of asso- 
ciations in extreme childhood, the intellectual and social train- 
ing of the young of each section for the great race of life, is 
almost directly antagonistical. The youth of the North are 
collected in schools, and subjected to rigorous discipline. 
Their acquisition is stimulated by the early awakened spirit 
of emulation, accompanied too often, we are obliged to admit, 
by that of the villanous and degrading rod. They learn to 
read, to write, and above all, they learn to " cipher." Their 
passions and impulses are restrained ; their communicative 
desires are repressed ; they are taught to keep silence — to 
listen without reply. Thus they learn to reflect — to be cau- 
tious of expressing opinions until they are thoroughly di- 
gested. They learn to convince, first themselves, and then 
others, by reason and document. Socially, they have no in- 
feriors ; there are to them but two classes — their equals and 
superiors — their playmates and their elders ; they are to 
gain a place in this upper rank by the right of attained man- 
hood, and the exercise of their intellectual acquirements. 

The son of the isolated Southern planter receives his edu- 
cation, at least the earlier part of it, under the paternal roof. 



9 



His stimulant is the stimulant of parental sympathy. His 
impulses are encouraged. He is permitted to feel strongly. 
He acquires knowledge by conversation ; quickness of per- 
ception is engendered — question, reply, and rejoinder follow. 
He learns to talk, he learns to interest by earnestness, and 
persuade by eloquence. He thus early becomes society for 
his elders. But he soon finds out that he is a master, and 
adds to his faculties of persuasion that of silencing an infe- 
rior by dictation and imperiousness. If we follow them both, 
the Northerner and the Southerner, from the scenes of their 
rudimental instruction, to the colleges, where the higher ac- 
quirements for maturer minds are inculcated — to Harvard 
or Yale — the patient and laborious student, the critical lin- 
guist, the mathematician, the natural philosopher, the essay- 
ist — these are from the North ; the star of the literary club, 
the declaimer, the forensic speaker, the light of the social 
circle — these are from the South. The consequences of such 
different modes of training are inevitable. The deduction is 
clear, and would be satisfactory, even if there was no per- 
sonal observation, no written record to sustain it. They 
carry the characteristics acquired in youth, into active life. 
One talks and commands all his lifetime ; the other thinks 
and acts. Bacon long ago condensed all that need be 
said of relative intellectual power, into few words. Both 
characters are delineated in the extract we quote from him : 
"Reading maketh a full man, conference, a ready man, 
and writing, an exact man ; and therefore, if a man write 
little, he had need have a great memory ; if he confer little, 
have a present wit ; and if he read little, have much cun- 
ning to seem to know that he doth not." 

It is in the halls of Congress that these distinctive charac- 
teristics become more clearly apparent, from contrast and col- 
lision. Without reflection, without premeditation, the South- 
erner plunges promptly, at a moment's notice, into stormy 
debate. Without system, without method, he depends upon 
the habit of his mind for extemporaneous suggestions. He 
assumes premises, he inverses paradoxes, he changes issues, 
2 



10 



he forces conclusions ; he " hath much cunning to seem to 
know that he doth not." Never at fault, never abashed, his 
language is flowing, his sentences smooth, and the words 
halt not for lack of ideas. His frequent personalities are 
like the invisible thrusts of a small-sword, which tickles 
while it gives the wound. His sentiments on the abstract 
principles of natural and political justice are very noble and 
generous. He refines with poetry, he enlivens by anecdote ; 
his quotations are trite, but his stories are new; he gives 
loose rein to the steeds of his imagination. His air is com- 
manding, his gesticulation graceful. He makes an interest- 
ing speech to a spell-bound audience. He puzzles, and per- 
haps bewilders the more methodical reasoner, and he disturbs 
the timid by his boldness and animal impetuosity. He is an 
excellent debater, but his speeches do not print well. The 
fallacy which seemed so like convincing argument, whilst 
the mind of the auditor must follow the voice and action of 
the speaker, is easily detected in a deliberate perusal. De- 
prived of its ornaments, stripped of its rhetoric, the body of his 
speech is amorphous — it has no consistency — it has no frame. 

Before the Northerner commits himself to speech, and his 
thoughts to words, he studies, calulates, — " ciphers it out." 
His speech is an elaborate oration. He expresses no opinion 
without laying bare the whole detailed, often tedious, pro- 
cess of reasoning by which he attained it. He assumes no 
position which is not clearly demonstrated to him by the re- 
corded experience of years. His use of language is to explain 
his facts, and illustrate their bearing. Often awkward in 
manner, often at loss for words, he seeks not to captivate by 
expression of voice or gesture. Gravely and steadily he 
keeps on to his object. His poetry, if he quotes it, is from 
some uncomprehended classic ; his romance, if he indulges it, 
is always, like the religious novels, "founded on fact." His an- 
ecdotes are " Joe Miller's :" ever body knows them ; they have 
been undisputed for centuries ; and he mutilates them in the 
telling. His personalities are rare, but when they do come, 
it is with the crushing blow of a giant ; and he is apt to strike 



11 



after the foe is prostrate. His argument may be disputed : 
he strengthens it with fresh facts ; his statistics may be de- 
nied : he produces his authority ; and he has a new volume 
for every fresh emergency. 

We have thus imperfectly generalized the characterstics of 
the forensic displays on the floors of Congress, from personal 
observation during several sessions in the " reporter's gal- 
lery." We do not mean to say that every Southern orator is 
" ready" or every Northerner " exact," nor that any one man 
furnishes all the distinctive points which we have embodied. 
The mass is made up of modifications and exceptions ; but 
the extremes are to be found where we have placed them. 
We appeal for confirmation to the Congressional Globe, or 
to any other impartial record of the National Legislative de- 
bates ; we appeal to it to demonstrate, that the orators of 
the South rarely deal in statistic document. They do not 
encumber their bold assertions with any such heavy weight. 
They do not fetter their " declamation," not exactly " slip- 
shod," but booted and spurred, with any such shackles. The 
statistics which they occasionally attempt, are almost in- 
variably partial and imperfect, and without the collateral 
columns necessary to a complete understanding. They can 
always be answered by completing the tables. No — the ora- 
tory of the South excels that of the North in many respects, 
but not in condensation and elucidation — not in the knowl- 
edge and application of statistics. The " rescue," then, which 
Mr. Fisher ironically talks of having effected, reminds us of 
the Spanish proverb, about " saving from one's friends." We 
are glad, however, that it has at last been attempted, and by 
a gentleman of such known ability. If the rescue fails, the 
weakness of the cause thereby receives a greater acknowl- 
edgment. 

The first position assumed is, then, " the superior wealth 
of the people of the South over the North, in proportion to 
their respective numbers ; and the first fact brought forward 
to demonstrate it, occurs on page 7. 

" The State of Massachusetts for instance, is generally 



12 



regarded as one of the most successful and nourishing of the 
North : and is constantly referred to by the newspapers as a 
model for all the others, and very frequently as a taunt to the 
Southern. If, however, we compare this favorite of the 
North, with Maryland, a Southern State, of similar territorial 
extent, and one of the least of the Southern States, we shall 
find the latter to be decidedly superior in wealth in propor- 
tion to the number of her citizens. According to the census 
of 1840, Maryland had a free population of 380,282, and in 
1847, her property was assessed at $202,272,650. Massa- 
chusetts in 1840 had a population of 737,699, and her pro- 
perty now is only §300,000,000. Taking these two assess- 
ments as the basis of comparison, and it appears that the 
average property of a free person in Maryland was $531, 
whilst in Massachusetts it is now, in the palmiest days she 
has ever seen, only $406 per head — the freeman of Mary- 
land being about 25 per cent, the richer." 

The territorial extent of Massachusetts and of Maryland 
is certainly similar in many respects. The territory of each 
extends from the centre to the outer limits ; they both are 
bounded partly by land and partly by water ; both have hills 
and streams, and valleys, and possess many other geological 
attributes in common ; but in one regard, essential to an 
equitable comparison, the similarity ceases ; and that is mag- 
nitude — the superficial area of Maryland being one third 
greater than that of Massachusetts. # Maryland contains 
10,755 square miles, Massachusetts but 7,800. 

We do not stop to insist on this evident disparity in the 
elements of the comparison ; for we disallow the justice of 
the comparison altogether. We protest against the selec- 
tion of Maryland, for the purpose of demonstrating the op- 
eration of Southern systems, by means of contrastive com- 
parison with a Northern State. Maryland is south of " Ma- 
son and Dixon," and is therefore geographically, or rather, 
conventionally, a " Southern State." Maryland encourages, 
entertains, or tolerates slavery, and is therefore, in regard to 



* The estimates of the areas of the States, used by us throughout this review, 
were in official use in 1842. The last Report from the Land Office, has, we un- 
derstand, slightly reduced these estimates. We are unable to obtain this Report, 
but are informed that the relative size of the States is not affected thereby. 



13 



the peculiar institution, conventionally again, a Southern 
State. But, in every thing which pertains to the sources of 
her wealth, her industrial policy, the pursuits of her citizens, 
and her political position, Maryland is more a " Northern" 
State than many of the free States. Virginia is the author 
of the " purely agricultural system," and is, or has been, at 
the head of the Southern political school. But Maryland 
is not of the Virginia breed. No two States can be more 
dissimilar than these, which lie side by side, and interlock the 
broad waters of the Chesapeake. The early settlers of Ma- 
ryland were of a different origin, religion, and habits, from 
the earlier settlers of Virginia. From the first, Maryland dis- 
couraged negro slavery ; and her disposition to engage in 
commerce and manufactures was manifested at a very early 
period. So early as 1706, the manufacture of linen and 
woollen cloth was commenced in Somerset and Dorchester. 
As colonies, Virginia and Maryland, if not actually at vari- 
ance, were never closely allied. Maryland connected her- 
self, politically, with the Northern States. She was the 
southernmost of the Northern States, which entered into the 
New York Confederacy of 1695. That there is now much 
of the Virginia leaven in the composition of Maryland, is 
not denied ; but, to a great extent in religion, to a still greater 
extent in domestic habits and political opinions, they have 
never yet affiliated : so far from it, that the distinction has 
been constantly becoming broader. Virginia, often by legis- 
lation, always by the much more coercive agent of public 
opinion, has discouraged and repressed the commercial and 
industrial spirit : Maryland, on the contrary, has been al- 
ways among the foremost States to sustain measures calcu- 
lated to promote it. In 1840, more than one fourth of her 
industrial population was occupied in commerce and manu- 
factures. At present the proportion is stated to be more than 
one third. The proportion of 1840 was greater than that in 
any other slave State — greater, indeed, than in many North- 
ern States. Her commercial marine is celebrated for daring 
and skilful enterprise. Her ships and her bay-craft are the 



14 



perfection of naval construction : for beauty and swiftness, 
they are the models of the world. The value of her ex- 
ports far exceeds that of the exports from Virginia ; and 
in that of imports, which, and not exports, indicate the 
commercial character, she exceeds that of all — excluding 
Louisiana which represents the productions of the Western 
States — the other Southern States combined. In shipping, 
the amount of her tonnage is greater than that of Virginia, 
South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama together. In proof 
of this, we insert a table, showing the proportion per cent, 
of persons respectively engaged in agriculture, and in com- 
merce and manufactures, in the three North Eastern slave 
States, and three North Eastern free States. We add also 
official tables, demonstrating the position of Maryland, rela- 
tive to the other Southern States, in regard to the amount 
of commerce and navigation. 

TABLE, 

Showing the proportion per cent, of persons engaged in Agriculture, and in 
Commerce and Manufactures, respectively, in the States herein indicated — 
from the Census of 1840. 

Agriculture. Commerce and Manufactures. 

Maine, 80.4 19.6 

New Hampshire, 80.3 19.7 

Vermont, 83.6 16.4 

Delaware, 78 22. 

Maryland, 74 26. 

Virginia, 84.1 15.9 

VALUE OF EXPORTS. 

Maryland. Virginia. 

1838, $4,724,575 $3,986,228 

1840, 5,768,768 4,778,220 

1847, 9,762,244 5,658,374 

VALUE OF IMPORTS. 
1838. 1840. 1847. 

Delaware, $ 1,348 $ 802 $ 12,722 

District of Columbia, 122,748 119,852 25,049 

Virginia, 577,142 545,085 386,127 

North Carolina, .... 290,405 252,532 142,384 

South Carolina...... 2,318,791 2,058,870 1,580,658 

Georgia, 776,068 491,498 207,180 

Alabama, 524,548 574,651 390,161 

Florida Ter., 168,690 190,728.... (State) 143,298 

Mississippi, 336 

4,779,840 4,234,018 2,887,915 

Maryland, 5,701,869 4,910,746........ 4,432,314 



15 



AMOUNT OF TONNAGE IN 1842. 



Virginia, 47,336 

South Carolina, 23,469 

Georgia, 16,536 

Alabama, 14,577 

101,918 

Maryland, 106,856 



Note. In these tables, as in all others, we have not selected years for imper- 
fect illustration. But unexpected difficulties in obtaining statistical compilations 
prevent the tables from being so complete as we have wished them to be. We 
give all we have. 

We here see the sources of that wealth and prosperity, 
which have caused the selection of Maryland to be con- 
trasted with Massachusetts, "the model State of the North." 
It is from the difference between her domestic policy and that 
of the other Southern States, and not from their similarity. 
The sole resemblance is in the fact of the employment of 
slave labor. But even here the parallel fails. She by no 
means depends upon her slaves for her labor. The popula- 
tion was, in 1840, of 

Free white. Free colored. Slaves. 

Maryland, 318,201 62,078 89,735 

Virginia, 740,968 49,824 448,987 

PROPORTION PER CENT. 

White and free colored. Slaves. 

Maryland, 81 19 

Virginia, 63.8. 36.2 

It thus appears that neither the character of the pursuits 
nor the character of the labor is the same in Virginia and 
Maryland. We deny, therefore, that the prosperity of Ma- 
ryland can be properly brought forward to illustrate benefi- 
cial results from the policy of Virginia. 

" The States of New York and Virginia are both of great 
territorial extent, and not materially unequal in that respect. 
New York is also regarded habitually, as one of the grandest 
products of free institutions — and the present condition of 
Virginia is continually referred to, as a striking and melan- 
choly result of slavery. Her poverty, her ignorance, her 
idleness, her decay, and her misery are the threadbare topics 
of modern political philosophy, here and abroad. Let us 
now consider the facts. Her free population in 1840, ac- 
cording to the census, was 790,810, and her property is 



16 



now about $600,000,000. The population of New York in 
1840, was 2,428,921, and in 1847 her property is assessed at 
$632,699,993. The average property of a free person in 
Virginia is $758 ; in New York it is only $260, or a little 
more than one third. 

" Virginia instead of being poor and in need of the pity of 
the much poorer population of the North, is perhaps the 
richest community in the world. The average wealth of the 
people of Great Britain may be about the same, but it is not 
near so productive, and I think it demonstrable that no peo- 
ple on earth live in a condition of greater comfort and enjoy- 
ment than those of Virginia. Nor is there any reason to fear 
a decline in her wealth." 

The conditions of inequality necessary to constitute a ma- 
terial inequality, are, we must suppose, matter of individual 
opinion ; and, to such as consider a territorial extent, rather 
greater than those of Massachusetts and Maryland combined, 
as nothing of consequence, the difference in the areas of 
New York and Virginia may appear a slight one. We in- 
dulge no such liberal views. 

The area is, in square miles, of 

Virginia, 65,700 

New York, 46,220 

Difference, 19,480 

Were it necessary, we might here protest against this com- 
parison as being loosely instituted. But as it is only de- 
signed to establish a position, the general truth of which we 
are willing to admit, namely, that the average wealth of the 
white population in Virginia is greater than the average 
wealth of the whole population of New York, we forbear to 
urge our objections. 

The degree of difference in the averages is not, we are 
sure, correctly estimated. We quote the basis from which 
Mr. Fisher has derived the estimates : 

" The property of Massachusetts is stated according to 
recent estimates in her papers. That of Virginia was com- 
puted at the amount now assumed, in 1834 by Prof. Dew. I 
have seen no official statement. But if she taxes other pro- 
perty as high as negroes, the total must now far exceed that 
estimate, as in 1847 she taxed 252,317 adult slaves at 



17 

§80,741, who are worth about §100,000,000, and taxes her 
other property, real and personal, §354,454, exclusive of mer- 
chants' stock ; and the Governor's message states there has 
been an increase of 5 per cent in every item of taxation last 
year." 

The wealth of Massachusetts, a great deal of it, is not 
included in these " recent estimates in her papers." It lies 
in her strong boxes, in the shape of stocks in property all 
over the United States. In the year 1836, Massachusetts 
expended twelve millions of dollars, out of the State, in the 
construction of railroads alone. This is also the case, to 
some degree, in Maryland and New York. But, as we have 
"ruled out" the comparison between Massachusetts and Ma- 
ryland, we pursue this portion of the subject no further, and 
proceed at once to examine this estimate of the wealth of 
Virginia. 

There is, in our mind, no doubt of its utter inaccuracy. 
Prof. Dew most probably based his estimates in 1834, upon 
data afforded by the census of 1830, and proportioned his 
ratio of increase by the ratio of increase established during 
the ten preceding years. 

Now, for the ten years prior to 1830, the census showed 
an increase in the number of slaves, of 44,604, or 10.49 per 
cent, over the number enumerated by the census of 1820. 
But during the ten years, from 1830 to 1840, the census of 
the latter year shows, that the number of slaves had de- 
creased 20,770, or 4-19 per cent. Thus this one great ele- 
ment of wealth is shown to be deserting her ; and, from the 
relation which this species of property bears to her produc- 
tiveness, being her labor, the inference is unavoidable, that 
her real estate has correspondingly decreased in value ; or, in 
other words, that it has become unprofitable to retain labor 
upon the land — it is not worth working. This depreciation 
in the value of land, we know to have been extensively the 
case in "Old" Virginia. Of the western and interior counties, 
we are unable to speak. 

From the tax-list, it appears that the slave property has 
been, since 1840, about stationary ; but we think we are 
3 



18 



warranted in expecting that the census of 1850 will show, 
on all ages, a still further depletion in this item of Virginian 
wealth. 

The number of adult slaves taxed in Virginia, was, in 



1842, 250,113 

1843, 252,176 

1844, 251,692 

1845, 251,297 

1846 

1847, 252,317 



The supposition advanced, that if Virginia "taxes other 
property as high as she does negroes," a greater amount of 
other property is indicated by the amount of taxes raised, 
is rather a curious piece of reasoning. The deduction from 
a high tax, is directly the reverse. If the amount raised be 
given, the value of the property from which it has been col- 
lected, is to be estimated in a ratio precisely as the lowness 
of the tax. If a tax of 2 per cent, in one year will raise 
§500,000, and a tax of lj per cent, raises the same sum in 
the next year, an increase in either amount, or value, of 
property is shown. If, then, Virginia taxes other property 
as low as she does negroes, Mr. Fisher's result might be pre- 
dicated. But the fact is, that she taxes other property much 
higher. The tax on negroes is specific at 32 cents per head. 
Mr. Fisher estimates the value of these slaves, paying taxes 
in 1847, at about §100,000,000, or we will suppose at the 
usual average of $400 each, which will be a little more. 
At this rate, the tax of 32 cents is equivalent to 8-100 of 1 
per cent, ad valorem. Horses, &c. are taxed 10 cents each ; 
averaging their value at §50, this is 2-10 of 1 per cent, ad va- 
lorem ; gold watches at $1, equal to 1 per cent. ; silver, patent 
lever, at 50 cts. equal to 1 per cent. ; so of other watches and 
clocks. Carriages and pianos are taxed 1-J- per cent, ad va- 
lorem. What the rate is on land, we have not ascertained ; 
and without this, it is impossible to make an approximate 
estimate from the tax-lists alone, of the value of property. 

We have analysed the rates of taxation to show that the 
one great item of her wealth, next to her land, is taxed at a 
less rate than any other. This is significant as regards the 



19 



profitable character of this species of investment. The rate 
has of late years decreased. In 1840, it was 40 cents per 
head, and is now, or was last year, 32 cents. 

There is another fact connected with all this, though perhaps 
foreign to the immediate purpose of this review, to which 
we call the attention of the next man who has occasion to 
make a speech, or write a report on the tariff; and this is, 
that Virginia, so eloquent against the employment of specific 
duties in the collection of the national revenues, recognizes 
their necessity or convenience in her State policy. There is 
another fact, or rather we believe it to be a fact, that Vir- 
ginia, in her licenses to merchants, &c. also recognizes the 
protective principle. We make this statement with much 
misgiving — it is a memorial impression of several years' 
standing ; and we have been unable, after much enquiry, to 
verify it here. We believe, however, that this discriminative 
protective duty is, or was in 1840, one hundred per cent in 
favor of " home productions ;" that the annual license for the 
sale of articles manufactured in the State was $30, and §'60 
for licenses to sell goods manufactured out of the State. If 
we are wrong in this statement, we should feel obliged for 
competent correction. 

A comparison of a nature similar to this between Vir- 
ginia and New York, is instituted between the States of Ohio 
and Kentucky, from which it appears that " the average 
value of property belonging to each free person in Kentucky, 
is $456; in Ohio, it is only $276, or one third less." There 
is also some comment on all these arithmetical results, tend- 
ing to affirm the conclusion, that the average property of 
each free person in the slave States generally, is greater 
than the average property of all persons in the free States. 
There is, in addition, argument to maintain the propriety of 
" including the slaves as property in estimating the average 
wealth of individuals in a community." 

We agree that whatever is assessed as property, should be 
regarded as such, in all cases relating to it as property solely 
— or where the recognition of this property does not come in 



20 



conflict with a denial having equal force. So long as Virginia 
regards her negroes as property, in all questions or disputes 
which can be decided without going out from under the juris- 
diction of their laws, they can, we think, be legitimately esti- 
mated as property. But, whenever the question is carried be- 
yond this, — where the propriety of the premises and justice of 
the conclusions cannot be settled by recourse to her own laws 
solely, inequality obtains, and other authorities must decide. 
There is no such thing as natural civil law ; and there are 
but few conventional laws, which are universal in their ap- 
plication or authority. England maintains that the allegiance 
of her native born subjects is inalienable, and that the right 
to claim and enforce their service, under all circumstances, is 
a natural prerogative of the Crown. This is excellent law 
— true doctrine — wherever the power of the British Crown 
extends — it is undeniable. But the laws of the United States 
permit subjects of foreign powers to become citizens of their 
republic. England may say with truth, that there are so 
many thousands of British subjects settled in the United 
States. The United States, on the other hand, assert them 
as her own naturalized citizens ; and each allegation is true 
till they come in conflict. The dispute must then be accom- 
modated by other appeals than to local law. Virginia may 
enact that a horse shall, in her State polity be regarded, for 
all civil purposes, as a negro slave, be valued as a slave, as- 
sessed as a slave, and technically termed a slave ; that pro- 
prietorship in a horse shall be of the same tenure, and confer 
the same privileges, as proprietorship in a slave : allow them 
representation, and in all questions of population, treat of them 
as " slaves," or even as persons ; and this local law would not 
involve greater absurdity than do many existing laws. It is 
the simple converse of the proposition, by which a " person" is 
legalized as property. Virginia might, then, do all this, and it 
would be good law — for Virginia. But if she demand, upon 
the strength of this, her local law, an increase of slave rep- 
resentation in the Federal Congress, she is told that the Con- 
stitution does not recognize horses as coming under the term 



21 



a other persons," contained in the provision by which the 
three fifths' representation is regulated. 

So, Virginia recognizes proprietorship in human beings : 
New York does not. They cannot therefore agree on the 
premises. Now, it would be absurd for Virginia to include 
her slaves as persons, in estimating the average wealth of 
her citizens — for she knows that they cannot hold property. 
But when she proceeds to compare the average thus ob- 
tained with the average which includes the entire population 
of New York, for the purpose of illustrating the relative 
wealth of the two States, it would be equally absurd in New 
York 10 admit the justice of the comparison ; for a large 
class, the laboring class, occupy in the two estimates, op- 
posite positions. 

New York and Virginia must then decide this point by 
the neutral and superior authority of political science : and in 
this connection, political science regards the slaves as popu- 
lation simply, without reference to the interior regulations of 
either State. 

But, practically, it makes no difference, or very little, what 
the negroes are considered, " in estimating the average wealth 
of individuals in a community." This "average wealth" is 
a very harmless and useless abstraction. It means nothing, 
and proves nothing. The aggregate property and popula- 
tion of two States being given, the " average" is perhaps a 
more convenient, a shorter method of stating the compari- 
son between States. But not the remotest idea of the com- 
parative wealth of individuals composing a community, is 
afforded by averaging the aggregate wealth according to the 
population. The sum of $100,000, averaged among a hun- 
dred persons, is $1,000 each ; but we can form no judgment 
whether ninety-nine possessed but a dollar apiece, and the 
hundredth the whole remainder; or whether fifty persons 
possessed $500 each, and fifty $1,500. No indication of in- 
dividual property whatever is presented by this " average." 
We must obtain our knowledge on this point from other 
sources. 



22 



We had never supposed that the point, generally, which 
Mr. Fisher has taken so much pains to establish, had been 
doubted, and needed confirmation ; namely, that the relative 
wealth of the small free white population of the great State 
of Virginia, is larger than the relative wealth of the vast 
population of the lesser State of New York — it being under- 
stood that slaves are to be reckoned as property ; or, in other 
words, reversing the proposition, — that the white popula- 
tion of the planting States is smaller than the population 
of the free States, in proportion to the resources of the 
States, respectively. That the wealth of these States has 
accumulated in fewer hands, and that the tendency of these 
systems is, to continue a monopoly, which prevents its dif- 
fusion, is the very first point we should have been anx- 
ious to establish, had Mr. Fisher disputed it. But he not 
only indirectly admits it, but the tendency of his whole ar- 
gument is to show that it is a desirable state of things. 
This would appear at first sight an unfortunate position 
to be assumed in a special plea, to vindicate the natural 
and political rights of Republican States. It scarcely car- 
ries out the democratic doctrine of the greatest good to 
the greatest number. At all events, it is not by such ar- 
guments and such positions, that the planting interest has 
until lately held in bonded partnership the "free democracy'' 
of the Northern farming States. But is not this new man- 
ner of treating the subject a profound, sagacious policy? 
The effects of the Southern system of agriculture, in Virginia 
at least, can no longer be concealed. The disguise it has so 
long worn, has at last fallen ; its pretensions are exposed, and 
the "free democracy" are now covering with contempt the 
animal which has so long terrified them by shaking a lion's 
mane. They have gotten, as usual, into the opposite ex- 
treme. Perhaps, then, the best plan for the ultraists of the 
South is, in the expressive patois of the day, to " acknowl- 
edge the corn" — to defend and extol the principles of her 
system, and attribute to other causes those effects, which ? 
on the other side, are pointed out as evidences of its insuffi- 
ciency—to meet extremes with counter extremes. But ex. 



tremes of this nature never meet ; they can never be recon- 
ciled by coalition. The South Carolinian planter, to whose 
rich and unexhausted soil, the ruin of the Virginian system has 
not yet extended — where it may not extend for a century ; 
the Virginian planter of the interior counties, which have 
never yet felt the whole force of the blight which has swept 
the Eastern section — proud by inheritance — made independ- 
ent by the act of his ancestors, — in the centre of his thousand 
acres — among his hundreds of slaves — monarch of all he 
surveys — when he constrasts his situation with that of the 
laboring farmer or mechanic of the North, feels perfectly 
satisfied that his own position is the best one ; that his sys- 
tem of labor and capital is the most profitable and proper ; 
that he, as a master, and the negro, as a slave, are fulfilling 
their original destinies ; that their relative positions are a 
necessary and natural state of society, and that agriculture, 
as practised on his plantation, is the preferable system ; for 
he compares its results with that of his poor white neighbor 
who can afford to employ no slaves. These conclusions are 
very natural. On the other hand, the Northern farmer or 
mechanic, who pays for his daily bread and his manly pride, 
or has bought independence by the sweat of his own brow, 
— who fares less sumptuously every day — if he contrast his 
own condition with that of the luxurious planter, cannot help 
feeling that there is some natural injustice in this state of 
inequality. As in the case of the planter, so that portion of 
the system only, which lies upon the surface, is revealed to 
him. He sees only negro slavery as the agent of this whole 
distinction ; and it is not long before he feels — he knows — that 
slavery is politically a curse, and slave-holding morally a 
crime. The supposed natural instinct of the Northern farmer 
is worthy as much consideration as the supposed natural in- 
stinct of the Southern planter. One offsets the other. 

But what is right, and what is wrong, is not in this way to 
be decided by individual instinct : individual feeling differs, 
in men, equally irreproachable in morals, equally patriotic, 
and equally intelligent. Experience in practical operation — 



24 



knowledge of results, in political systems, or individual ac- 
tion — have always determined, if not originated, what we 
consider the precepts of morality. Reasoning from knowl- 
edge, then, must influence the decision in regard to the mo- 
rality of the Southern system. There is no where else to go 
for data but to the results ; and these results are to be sought 
for in the United States alone. We have no history to in- 
struct us — no codified experience, which, as moral precept, 
or religious tenet, it is presumption to dispute, or blasphemy 
to deny. For, although slavery has, in one or another form, 
in all ages, had existence, yet the condition of attending cir- 
cumstances never has been those of slavery as it exists in the 
United States, in any age or nation of which there is any 
record. The few points of analogy presented by the sla- 
very of former times, and indeed of other modern nations, 
though they may aid the inquiry, do not include the premises, 
and therefore cannot determine the conclusions. Errors in 
political systems, if the will be earnest, and the intention 
pure, as in persons, work out their own redemption. The 
peculiar system of the Southern States, has never before 
been tried, and, for our judgment in regard to its propri- 
ety — its morality — -we are limited to the observation of re- 
sults from its workings for the last two hundred years, upon 
our own soil, within our own lives, our fathers', and our 
fathers' fathers'. Great need is there then, that our ob- 
servation should be close, our reflection earnest, and and our 
conclusions sure. Reasoning thus, so long as the relation of 
master and slave is reciprocally beneficial ; so long as the in- 
terests of the State or nation are not prejudiced by it ; so long 
as the cause of general humanity is not retarded by it ; in fine, 
so long as the relative condition of all connected with it can 
be reasonably demonstrated to be better than it would be, if 
the relation of master and slave were destroyed — so long is 
Southern negro slavery, politically, good morals. And, as 
with slavery, so with the other peculiarities of the South- 
ern system, of which slavery is the most prominent, and 
generally considered, the most exceptionable feature. 



25 



There are those, neither planters nor laborers— men who 
have made political principles their study — who think and 
reason in their philanthropy, as well as feel and talk — among 
them many from the planting States, who, looking on the 
decreasing population, the desolate old fields, the deserted 
houses, the grass-grown streets of the silent cities, and the 
decay of the ancient and honorable pride of the old Domin- 
ion — see in these things, not the results of any humbug about 
" indirect taxation," but the operation of her own system of 
economy, and its effects on the energies of her citizens ; — 
a vast landed proprietorship, hereditary in its privileges, con- 
solidating in its tendencies, gradually absorbing the lesser 
divisions, and looking with contempt upon the industrial pur- 
suits — an agriculture which exhausts without reproduction — 
a production without cultivation; — a social system, ungracious 
and exclusive, which, regarding "family" and wealth as bases, 
bars its avenues to the emulation of the poor, whose ancestry 
were humble; — an educational system, uncharitable in its ex- 
ercise, and limiting in its extent, and to the eclectic few, who 
receive all the benefits such a system can bestow, unimprov- 
ing, because unexperimental; — and a system of labor, which 
associating the earning of bread with ignorance, debasement 
and brutality, connecting idleness with pride, and luxury with 
distinction, transforms the milder punishment of Adam into 
worse than the curse of Cain. 

Fair operation, fair trial, has this system had for more than 
two centuries ; and when thinking men see under it, the rich 
lands worn out, industry at a stand-still, the oldest and most 
honored families reduced to poverty, selling their " hands" 
for their subsistence ; and the poor white man, who, with 
but small encouragement, would have remained by the graves 
of his fathers, would have filled manufactories, or renewed 
the fertility of the soil — crushed by his social debasement, 
has sought out homes in the free North- West — when they see 
this, and contrast it with the condition and prospects of the 
Northern States, is it strange that they should question the 

4 



26 



integrity of this " unrivalled system of Southern civiliza- 
tion ?" 

The system of the North is in each particular the opposite. 
The land is divided among many comparatively small pro- 
prietors — the owner working with his own hands — the ster- 
ile soil productive and reproductive — the energies of the pop- 
ulation judiciously distributed among the three elements of 
the independence of a State — agriculture, manufactures, and 
commerce — labor of some kind, not only respectable, but 
essential to respectability ; a system of education, which dis- 
covers intellect wherever it may be hid among the poor and 
humble, — cherishes it, incites it to emulation and excellence, 
and a social system, which rewards with its highest honors 
the exercise of this intellect and integrity. As for the results 
of this system, mention one or all of the blessings which are 
supposed to flow from civilization, and we point you for its 
highest development to the Northern States. 

Thinking men, then, question whether all this marked dif- 
ference in results, may not arise from fundamental differ- 
ences in systems. They question whether the system which, 
under a more ardent sun, and on a more generous soil, may 
have been less destructive in its operation, is not misap- 
plied upon the soil of Virginia ; and whether it would not 
be better to substitute a system of less splendor and more 
thrift — more extended in its aims — less exclusively devoted to 
the one idea of agriculture, and with greater attention to the 
intellectual cultivation of her citizens. 

When men reflect on these things, one of the first premises 
which forces itself upon their observation, is this discovery of 
Mr. Fisher's — that the property of Virginia, a State not quite 
one third larger in territory than New York, much longer un- 
der cultivation, is much less valuable, and has fewer citizens 
to possess it : for this is the amount of the argument about 
"greater average wealth in proportion to the number of 
citizens." The term " wealth," when applied to individuals, 
signifies that which is money, or convertible into money. It 
has a very different meaning when applied to States. One 



27 



great item, in estimating the wealth of a State, has hereto- 
fore been considered the individuals who compose it. The 
number of men it can bring into the field in time of war, the 
number who exert moral influence in time of peace — the num- 
ber who may be employed in developing its resources and 
adding to its capital. But, by this new rule of estimating 
wealth by " averaging to white citizens," population be- 
comes an abstraction ; it is simply a third number, valueless 
in itself, given for stating a meaningless proportion ; and 
Mr. Fisher is right. The old rule will not work for Virginia. 
A large share of the inhabitants of Virginia cannot be es- 
teemed as adding to the wealth of the State under the item 
of population. They must be regarded as property of indi- 
viduals. They are worse than valueless to the State in 
time of war, and worth but little more to her in time of peace. 
It is true, in our representative government, the lack of that 
moral influence, which is associated with citizenship, is in 
some manner compensated by an indirect fractional repre- 
sentation of personified property. But this obtains only in the 
National Councils. It affords no compensation for the services 
of citizens lost to the State itself. 

The census shows that Virginia is deficient in population. 
Mr. Fisher himself admits, that her citizens having worn out 
the soil, are removing to the richer lands of the newer 
States. Yet this very deficiency is one of the accounting 
causes for the large " proportionate average." Allowing 
that the wealth of the State remains stationary even, with- 
out diminution, the " average" increase is precisely in the 
same ratio as the number of citizens decrease : there are 
fewer to average it among. But the higher average demon- 
strates no increase in the aggregate wealth. If there are ten 
merchants in a country village, four of whom sell out to the 
other six, the average wealth of the merchants of that vil- 
lage will be increased 40 per cent, without the addition of a 
dollar to this aggregate wealth ; and it would be absurd to 
instance this higher average as an illustration of the rapidly 
increasing prosperity of that village. Yet an average of this 



28 



character is the foundation of the whole argument, attenu- 
ated throughout the whole essay, by which Mr. Fisher asserts 
the superiority of the Southern system, and the great in- 
crease of Virginia in prosperity. 

We have said that we were not aware that this point was 
in dispute ; but it is certainly the first time that we ever heard 
it advanced as evidence of prosperity. The admitted and 
regretted existence has presented itself as inconsistent with 
the professed republican policy of equal privileges to equal 
capacities, and adverse to the proper employment of the 
resources of the State, aud its corresponding progress in 
wealth and civilization. 

In this connection, it may not be improper to insert an es- 
timate of the value of the annual product of Virginia, com- 
pared with the values of the annual product of the New 
England States, according to the census of 1840, prepared 
by Prof. Tucker, a Virginian; and Virginians cannot be 
charged with lack of devotion to the reputation of their na- 
tive State. 

It must be borne in mind, that the area of Virginia is 
greater in square miles than the superficial area of all the 
New England States together. 

ESTIMATE, ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1840, OF THE VALUE 
OF THE ANNUAL PRODUCTIONS OF VIRGINIA AND THE NEW 
ENGLAND STATES. 

Virginia. New England. 

Agriculture, $50,085,821 .$74,749,889 

Manufactures, 8,349,211 82,784,185 

Commerce, 5,299,451 13,528,740 

Mining, 3,321,629 3,803,638 

Forests, 617,700 3,361,287 

Fisheries, 95,173 9,424,555 

$67,699,045 $187,652,294 

We do not now comment particularly on the facts pre- 
sented by this estimate, but leave it for future recurrence. 
Mr. Fisher continues : 

" According to the census returns of 1840, Virginia with a 
free population of less than one third of that of New York, 
and a capital something less, produced from the various 
branches of her industry, more than half the product of New 



29 



York ; and as the total population of Virginia, slave and free, 
is only about half of that of New York, it is clear that after 
deducting the annual consumption of both, Virginia will 
have a larger proportional surplus remaining to augment the 
stock of her permanent property." 

It would be strange indeed, that the productions of an 
agricultural State, with markets growing up all around, 
should positively depreciate, even under the Virginia system, 
so long as there is any new ground to go upon. That is not 
the point. The difficulty is, that the advance in wealth is 
proportionate, neither to the natural capacities of the soil, 
nor to the relative advances in wealth of other States. It 
is a good idea, too, that of proportioning the productions of 
Virginia to her free population, who are well known to ac- 
tually produce little — if any thing. Of this we shall have 
something to say hereafter. We now put the case of New 
York and Virginia a little differently. 

By the returns of the census of 1840, it appears that Vir- 
ginia, an agricultural State, with a population of 50,673 
greater than half that of New York, with a capital in land 
not quite one third greater in amount — but of twice the nat- 
ural value in fertility, than that of New York — produced 
about half the value of the product of New York ; and noth- 
ing whatever is clear, from these premises, in regard to the 
augmentation of permanent property. The annual propor- 
tional surplus, above consumption, does not indicate it, even 
if that surplus was ascertained. In an agricultural State, 
and in a manufacturing State, respectively, the premises of 
this knowledge are different. We shall not now go into 
this definition, but remark only, that an agriculture, let its 
productions be never so vast, which exhausts the soil, does 
not augment the stock of property — or rather, it augments it 
very much the wrong way : and we instance the Eastern 
counties of Virginia. 

Before taking leave of this portion of this " average" argu- 
ment, we must repeat, that we are satisfied that no reliable 
data exist for estimating the present wealth of Virginia at 
$600,000,000. We have been unable to obtain data for a per- 



30 



fectly accurate estimate ; but we do not believe, that at the 
utmost, it is more than $400,000,000 ; and our chief reliance 
for this, is the known dependence of the value of the land 
upon that of the labor — that their relative value to each 
other must remain nearly the same ; and our knowledge 
that land cultivation by slave labor is now — as it has been — 
the source of the principal wealth of the State. By the 
assessment for the national taxes, in 1814-15, 

The value of the slaves was estimated at $ 98,129,500 
Houses and Lands, 165,608,199 

$263,737,699 

Her slaves numbered, in 

1810 392,518 Increase. 

1820, 425,153 32,635 

1830, 469,757 44,604 

Decrease. 

1840, 448,987 20,770 

Half the increase, from 1810 to 1820, is 16,317. Add to 
this the number in 1810, (392,518.) and we have 408,835 
slaves in 1815, valued at $98,129,500. The relative value 
of real estate and slaves to the value of slaves in 1815, is as 
100 to 33.4; or thus : 

263,737,699 : 98,129,500 : : 100 : 33.4 nearly. 

The value of the land is assumed to maintain the same re- 
lation to the value of the slaves now as it did in 1815. We are 
satisfied that the mean average, specific value of real estate 
and of slaves in Virginia, of land per acre, and of slaves per 
head, taking the whole State, and slaves of all ages, has not 
increased 5 per cent, since 1815. We will, however, allow for 
our estimate an increase of 12 per cent, on each. At this 
rate, estimating the number of slaves in 1840, viz. 448,987, 
at $120,000,000, the aggregate relative value of real estate 
and slaves,is $360,000,000 ; or thus : 

As 33.4 : 100 : : 120,000,000 : 360,000,000 nearly. 

We estimate the personal property by the New York aver- 
age of $50 per head on the free population, who alone are 
capable of holding property, at $40,000,000, nearly; and 
we have in round numbers the aggregate of $400,000,000 ; or 
thus : 



31 



Estimated value in 1840, of Real Estate, 

Slaves, 

Personal Estate, 



$240,000,000 
120,000,000 
, 40,000,000 



$400,000,000 



Nor do we believe that the most extravagant calculation 
on data of reliable character can increase this result. The 
premises of our estimate are correct, the ratiocination legiti- 
mate, and our allowances liberal : in " rounding" the num- 
bers, we have added to and increased the critical results. 

One word more. " The Governor's message states, that 
there has been an increase of 5 per cent, in every item of 
taxation last year." Quaere — Has, or has not, the retrocession 
of fifty square miles, including the city of Alexandria, from 
the District of Columbia, any thing to do with this 5 per 
cent, increase ? 

In regard to Ohio and Kentucky, Mr. Fisher says, that 

" Nothing is more common than the opinion that the price 
of land in Kentucky is, in consequence of slavery, much 
lower than in Ohio. I have examined the Auditors' reports 
of both States, which present in detail the valuation of all 
their lands. In Kentucky, the average value is about seven 
dollars per acre ; in Ohio it is about eleven, and I am very 
confident that the quality of Ohio land is to that extent su- 
perior — as in Kentucky there is a large mountain region for 
which Ohio has nothing equivalent." 

The confidence expressed herein, that the quality of Ohio 
land is more than one third better than that of Kentucky, 
will not be shared, we think, by many Kentuckians. It has 
always been their boast, that their State is the Eden of the 
United States, for richness and fertility ; and it is true. The 
Indians and the buffaloes found it out, and made it their 
camping ground, and stamping ground, long before the white 
man knew it. It is true, that there is a mountainous region 
in Kentucky, which has no exact equivalent in Ohio — in 
mountains ; but, independent of the advantage in southern 
latitude, Kentucky has a region in its interior, for which Ohio 
has no equivalent in fertility. The north part of Ohio is ex- 
posed to the winds and storms from the lake, from which 
Kentucky is shielded ; and Ohio has large tracts of imprac- 



32 



ticable swamp lands, which are more than equivalent in un- 
productiveness for the mountains of Kentucky. There are 
not, however, 50 acres of mountain land in the whole State 
of Kentucky, so rugged and so barren that they will not do 
for pasturage — for sheep, if not for cattle. There is a great 
deal of this broken country in the eastern part of Ohio, 
though not so much of it as in Kentucky. But there is 
nothing in either State, so rugged and so barren as what are 
called " hills" in New England, and which are worth five or 
six dollars per acre for cultivation and pasturage. The 
" marshy" lands of the interior and northern parts of Ohio, 
are fit for nothing, not even pasturage ; much of it can never 
be reclaimed, nor, at the present land values in the West, 
or prospective for a century, will most that can be, pay for 
the expense of doing it. Any one who has a tolerable knowl- 
edge of the geography and geology of the two States, will 
know that our statement is correct ; that the commonly re- 
ceived opinion, as regards the natural fertility of the two 
States, is, for once, a correct one ; that Kentucky is far the 
superior, and we challenge a denial from competent author- 
ity. Now the value of land any where in the United States, 
depends upon the demand for it ; and the demand depends 
upon the value of the use it can be put to. The average 
value' of land per acre in Connecticut is two or three times 
what it is in Ohio ; yet there is not an acre in the whole 
State of Connecticut, of such natural fertility as the Ken- 
tucky hills opposite Cincinnati, which are so poor, compara- 
tively, that the Kentuckians think them hardly worth work- 
ing. Ten acres of the bottom lands on the Miami or the 
Licking, where successive crops of corn have been raised for 
thirty or forty years, without renewing the soil, if they could 
be transferred to the banks of the Connecticut, would be a 
large fortune to a New England farmer. The demand for the 
products of the soil in New England, increases their value, 
and compensates for the greater labor and the smaller crops. 
Of course this increases the demand for the land and its 
its value. The demand also is greater in Ohio for land than 



33 



it is in Kentucky — more people want to buy it, and they do 
so, not because it is more fertile, but because they may culti- 
vate it themselves without derogation to their dignity, and be- 
cause there are better roads, and better facilities for getting 
their produce to market. It is more valuable on this latter 
account alone. The consequence of working the land them- 
selves, is, that it is better cultivated and more productive. 
This too adds to its value, and, as well as the fact that the 
proportion of cultivated land is greater in Ohio, and that the 
" average" includes the wild land of both States, helps to in- 
crease the difference in the average values in the two States. 
But the superior natural value of the land in Ohio was never 
before advanced as a cause, nor is it now attempted to be 
established. 

What we have said of the manner in which the " greater 
average wealth, in proportion to the white population," is 
obtained for Virginia, will apply with little modification to 
Kentucky. It is an estimate of the wealth of a State, which 
shows nothing but what was known before — that the sub- 
stantive labor, which in Ohio is the property of the State, and 
really is a part of its wealth as a community, is in Kentucky 
divided among, and controlled by, a comparatively small 
number of individuals — and that this labor, considered as 
property, is averaged among the mass, who neither control it 
nor profit by it. Doubtless the Kentuckians who are not slave- 
holders, must feel under deep obligations to Mr. Fisher for 
allowing them to participate on paper in the supposed enjoy- 
ment of this factitious " wealth." They have doubtless now 
discovered that they are " richer, much richer," than they had 
before any idea of. They have an interest now in a property 
which they before erroneously supposed belonged entirely to 
other people. As for the slaveholders themselves, it is for them 
to decide whether the investment of a nominal sum in slaves, 
is on the whole as profitable and productive as would be the 
same sum invested in, or paid out for, free labor ; whether it be 
not, even under the present state of things, in the long run, 
the least profitable investment; or in other words, whether a 
5 



34 



nominal thousand dollars' worth of negroes is actually of as 
much value as a thousand dollars' worth of any thing else. 
We may add, that the assessed values in Kentucky are known 
from the character of the property to be much nearer the 
actual values than are the assessed values in Ohio. As, 
however, an adjustment of the real values in Ohio to those 
assessed, would only alter the degree of difference in the 
averages, and can make no difference in the general princi- 
pie, viz. that the " average" is greater in the slave States 
to the white population, we do not consider it worth while to 
attempt the adjustment. As we have before said, this is the 
chief evidence of the unequal operation of the Southern 
system. 

The admission that the average wealth of Great Britain 
is about the same as the average wealth of Virginia, is an 
unfortunate one for the conclusions desired by Mr. Fisher to 
be established. Had we no other knowledge of the condi- 
tion of the people of Great Britain, and were we to admit 
the rule of average as demonstrating their prosperity, then 
the people of Great Britain are the most prosperous on the 
face of the earth. The average of property among the 
twenty millions of population is five or six times the aver- 
age of Virginia. Including Ireland, the population of the 
United Kingdom is 28,000,000 ; and it is difficult, if not im- 
possible, to conceive of the vast wealth which this popula- 
tion possesses. The value of the land alone in the United 
Kingdom, is estimated at two thousand millions sterling, or 
nearly ten billions of dollars — without recurring to the wealth 
invested in commerce, mining, fisheries, and manufactures. 
Yet, of this 28,000,000 of population, 20,000,000 depend on 
their daily toil for their daily bread : of the 20,000,000, from 
5,000,000 to 7,000,000 are estimated to be occasionally and 
often without the means of satisfying their hunger. 

It is unnecessary to pursue this distressing illustration fur- 
ther. Enough has been said to show to any one, that the 
" average" gives no more idea of the " condition of individu- 
als in a community" than does the aggregate. Of this in- 
sufficiency Mr. Fisher appears to be conscious ; for he at- 



35 



tempts to show the relative distribution of wealth from other 
premises. In spite of the well known character of the ori- 
ginal proprietary system of land in Virginia, and the gener- 
ally acknowledged tendency of the system to accumulation 
and consolidation, — in spite even of his own argument, that 
large proprietorship is essential to the full development of all 
the resources of the soil and the prosperity of agricultural 
pursuits, Mr. Fisher assumes that the wealth of the South 
is more equitably distributed than that of the North. He 
proceeds to demonstrate this extraordinary position in a man- 
ner equally original : 

" I know it is a common opinion, that much greater ine- 
quality of property exists in the South than in the North. 
But although I do not possess exact knowledge on this point, 
there is enough known to prove that this cannot be the case. 
The State of Virginia allows none to exercise the elective 
franchise but white freeholders, leaseholders of five years, 
and house keepers who are heads of families. Now it ap- 
pears by the returns of the Presidential election of 1844, 
that Virginia gave about 95,000 votes ; allowing 10,000 for 
voters who did not attend the polls, and it appears that there 
are 105,000 free white males in that State who are either 
freeholders, leaseholders, or house keepers, and heads of 
families; and by the census of 1840, there were only 157,989 
white males in that State above the age of 21 ; so that two- 
thirds of them are either freeholders, leaseholders, or house- 
keepers. I do not know what proportion of the Northern 
States are freeholders, but I have seen a detailed statement 
from one of the interior counties of New York, from which it 
appears that only half the voters were freeholders ; and when 
we consider that the cities of New York and Boston contain 
nearly half the property of the States to which they respec- 
tively belong, and that in those cities pauperism prevails to 
greater extent than any where else in the Union, it is very 
clear that great inequality of property prevails." 

In the first place, we object to " allowing 10,000 for voters 
who did not attend the polls." We have seen something of 
political strife in that State, and we cannot be made to be- 
lieve that five thousand voters in Virginia, we had almost 
said five hundred, who were able to attend the polls, ever 
staid away from them at a Presidential election. The rea- 



36 



son for this enthusiasm is obvious. Men who have privi- 
leges by distinction, value them higher, and are more prompt 
to assert the prerogative than where suffrage is unrestricted, 
and all are equal. On the contrary, we are inclined to think 
that more persons vote than are intended by the spirit of the 
law to do so. The restrictions on suffrage are continually 
obviated, as they always will be, where there are restrictions. 
Freeholders are easily made. A few acres in the heart of 
the " Dismal Swamp," or an " old field," of the nominal value 
of twenty-five dollars, will make a man a freeholder on an 
emergency, and nobody the worse off. 

In the second place, the estimate supposes that no persons 
arrived at the age of twenty-one between the years 1840 
and 1844, but subtracts the estimated number of voters in 
1844 from the number of persons over twenty-one in 1840, 
thereby, together with the presumed 10,000 voters who staid 
at home, gaining about 16,000, to swell the proportion of free- 
holders, &c. to the entire population over twenty-one years 
old. 

Let us rectify this. The increase is, or was, nearly three 
thousand a year; allowing half the increase for females, 
we have 

Increase from 1840 to 1844, 6,000 

Add to white males over 21 years in 1840, 157,989 

Total over 21 in 1844, 163,989 

Subtract actual voters in 1844, nearly, 95,000 

68,989 

As 163,989 : 95,000 : : 100 : 58— or, but little more than one 
half, " who are either freeholders, leaseholders, or house- 
keepers ;" and not two thirds, as by Mr. Fisher's estimate. 

But, waiving all this, and allowing Mr. Fisher's estimate 
for the sake of his argument, and that two thirds of the pop- 
ulation above twenty-one years of age are freeholders, &c, 
it gives us no information in regard to the distribution of pro- 
perty, until we learn the value of these freeholds and house- 
hold establishments. This Mr. Fisher has failed to give us, 
and we here present the regulations of suffrage according to 
the amended Constitution of 1830. 



37 



The right of suffrage is extended to every white male citi- 
zen of the Commonwealth, resident therein, aged twenty-one 
years and upwards, who owns a freehold of the value of §'25 ; 
or who has a joint interest to the amount of $25 in a free- 
hold : or who has a life estate in, or reversionary title to, 
land of the value of $50, having been so possessed for six 
months, or who shall own and be in the actual occupation of 
a leasehold estate, having the title recorded two months be- 
fore he shall offer to vote — of a term originally not less than 
five years, and of the annual value or rent of $200 ; or who 
for twelve months before offering to vote, has been a house- 
keeper and head of a family, and shall have been assessed 
with a part of the revenue of the Commonwealth within the 
preceding year, and actually paid the same. 

These then are the terms of suffrage. But they show us 
nothing whatever in regard to the distribution of wealth 
among the voters. The value of the freehold of one voter 
may be but §25, and that of his next neighbor be as many 
thousand or hundred thousand. One thing we do learn ; — 
that in Virginia, nearly one half, by our estimate, or one 
third by Mr. Fisher's, of the white males above the age of 
twenty-one, are so miserably poor as to be unable to buy the 
rights of citizenship on such easy terms as twenty-five dol- 
lars — a most equitable distribution of wealth, " in propor- 
tion to population" ! 

The attempt to settle the question of the distribution of 
wealth in the great State of New York, by a " detailed state- 
ment from one of the interior counties," is rather too whim- 
sical for serious consideration ; and we refer to it only be- 
cause it proceeds on the assumption, that all wealth pos- 
sessed by an individual, must be indicated by the ownership 
of a freehold, or some other tangible and assessable property. 
This assumption obtains throughout the essay. It is founded 
on a knowledge of the relations of property in the agricul- 
tural States alone. It is applicable in Virginia : it is not so 
in the manufacturing States of the North. The accumu- 
mulated wealth of merchants and mechanics is invested 



38 



in banks, and in other stocks in property in the hands of 
others. There are thousands of men who work as day la- 
borers in the factories, the founderies, and mills of the 
North, who save annually the value of a dozen Virginia 
freeholds. They are not house-keepers, for it is more con- 
venient to live in boarding houses ; and they buy no free- 
holds, for it is more profitable to invest in Railroad or Fac- 
tory stocks. 

Again, — the statement that the cities of New York and 
Boston contain nearly half the property of the States to 
which they respectively belong, is rather a loose one. The 
value of property in New York was, in 



1835, Real Estate, total, $403,517,585 

" Real Estate in New York City, 143,732,425 

" Personal Estate, total, 125,058,794 

New York City, 74,991,278 

1845, Total aggregate value of Real and Personal Estate, 

State, $605,646,095 

« City, 239,995,517 

The value of property in Massachusetts was, in 

1830, Total, $208,360,407 

" Suffolk County, 80,224,261 



Of the prevalence of pauperism in these cities, we shall 
speak hereafter. 

The next illustration of the equitable distribution of prop- 
erty in the Southern States, is contained in the following 
comparison : 

" The State of Ohio, a new State, and an agricultural one, 
and very prosperous, may be presumed to enjoy a tolerably 
equal distribution of property. There are in this State, by the 
last assessment, about fifty thousand pleasure carriages, and 
the possession of one of these, is an indication of a com- 
fortable condition of a family. In Virginia there were in 
1847, over 19,000 ; and that in a white population about one 
third as great as ours is now. This proves that the degree 
of comfort which such establishments indicate, is more dif- 
fused in Virginia than in Ohio." 

The venue, it seems, is changed to Ohio, and for the very 
good reason that a comparison of this character, between 
Virginia and New York, or between Ohio and Kentucky, 



39 



would demonstrate exactly the reverse of the desired con- 
clusion. But we take the argument as it is given to us. 

Some collateral knowledge is necessary to the proper un- 
derstanding of even correct statistics. We remember to have 
seen, a few years since, in a semi-official French estimate of 
the wealth of the United States, the State of Louisiana 
ranked second only to the State of New York. Our surprise 
vanished when we discovered that the value of foreign exports 
had been relied on as the base of the estimation — the au- 
thor carelessly taking it for granted that the whole export 
of the valley of the Mississippi, which finds its way to for- 
eign countries through the port of New Orleans, was the 
production of the State of Louisiana. Let us apply this 
" carriage" argument under other circumstances. In the city 
of Washington there are more than twice as many public 
hacks, cabs, &c. whose daily business it is to tranport "fares" 
from one place to another, as there are in the city of Cin- 
cinnati. A foreigner, the " French gentleman," for instance, 
having no other knowledge of either city, than that Wash- 
ington is the capital of the United States, and that Cincin- 
nati is the chief city of Ohio, would naturally receive this 
information as an indication of the greater population and 
superior wealth of the former city; yet the population of 
Cincinnati is at the least 90,000, and of Washington at the 
most not over 30,000. Washington has no manufactures or 
commerce of importance : there is more " business" done in 
Cincinnati in one day, than at Washington during the year. 
What, then, is the reason of this difference ? Simply that 
the distances in Washington are " magnificent :" it is a mile 
from any given place to " any where else ;" it is a mile from 
Capitol Hill to the " Departments," and a mile from thence to 
Georgetown : it is a mile from the Capitol to the Navy Yard, 
and a mile from thence to the Congressional burying ground ; 
it is a mile from the President's house to the Long Bridge, 
and the bridge is a mile long. This is precisely the reason 
why there are more pleasure carriages in Virginia, in pro- 
portion to white population, than there are in Ohio ; or rather, 



40 



why there ought to be, — for the case is by no means made 

out — for, allowing the relative rate of annual increase in 

the population of each State respectively, which occurred 

from 1830 to 1840, their population was, in 1847, 

Ohio, 2,005,967 

Virginia, 1,259,670 

Was it but one third that of Ohio, it would be but 688,655- 
It is true, that the possession of a pleasure carriage by a 
family in Ohio, is an indication of a " comfortable condition" 
much surer than it is in Virginia, approaching, as it does 
there, very near to a necessity. But the non-possession of a 
pleasure carriage in Ohio is no indication of an uncomfort- 
able condition : in Virginia, it is. If by " diffusion" is meant 
that the places where this " comfort" is found, are farthe r 
apart, we agree. In Virginia, it is scattered over an area 
more extensive by a third than it is in Ohio, for the State is 
so much larger. In Ohio, the citizens reside mostly in cities, 
towns, and villages. In Virginia, they reside on distinct 
plantations. In Ohio, the means of intercomunication by 
public conveyances — canals, railroads, steamboats, and stage 
coaches over excellent roads — are at every man's door, and 
obviate in a great measure the necessity of private carriages. 
It is not so in Virginia. The proprietor of an isolated planta- 
tion must provide, under all circumstances, his own convey- 
ances. Beside, a " carriage" is in Virginia, in some sort an 
expression of the social rank of the parties. Much comfort 
is sacrificed to style. A family of respectable extraction 
must be very poor, which is not able to keep at least one of 
some kind. This is not so imperatively the case in Ohio. 
There are thousands of families who could well afford to 
"keep up" a carriage, if their social position demanded it, 
who do not, simply because they have no use for it — their 
occasional excursions for business or for pleasure being 
taken without degradation on some of the public convey- 
ances. 

But, if the rule for estimating the degree of comfort by the 
number of carriages will not, as we have shown, apply to a 
comparison between Ohio and Virginia, it still holds good 



41 



for Virginia alone ; and, knowing that these private car- 
riages are a necessity both in regard to the means of in- 
ter-communication, and to the social consideration of the 
citizens, we may approximate, by proportioning the num- 
ber of these vehicles to the white population, to a tolerably 
accurate estimate of the distribution of wealth among them; 
much more accurately, we believe, in this manner, than in 
any other, short of an actual census of individual property. 

The "over 19,000 pleasure carriages," assessed in Virginia 
for 1847, consisted, according to the tax returns, of 

Carriages, 12,865 

Carryalls, 2,089 

Gigs, 3,845 

Stages, 85 

18,884 

It is very well known that many families keep more than 
one carriage, but for the sake of a liberal estimate, we shall 
assume that each carriage represents a single family. Mr. 
Fisher estimates the number of voters in 1844, at 105,000 — 
our own estimate was 95,000. We compromise, and allow 
in round numbers, 100,000 voters, and of course freeholders 
and heads of families, for the year 1847. Throwing out 
the " stages," and not insisting upon the known duplication 
of carriages among the more wealthy, of these 100,000 fam- 
ilies, we have, — 

Families who are able to keep carriages, 12,865 
« « * carryalls, 2,088 

«« " " gigs, 3,845 



18,799— 

which, subtracted from 100,000, leaves 81,201. 

This we honestly believe to be a near approximation to the 
relative wealth of the property holders in Virginia, viz., ten 
or twelve thousand wealthy families, five or six thousand 
in more constrained or moderate circumstances, and seventy 
or eighty thousand families, or more than four fifths, who 
are unable to support the necessary means of comfortable 
private conveyance, and a respectable position in society. 
It must not be forgotten, that, had we taken Mr. Fisher's es- 

6 



42 



timate of the number of heads of families, the proportion of 
poor among them would have been much increased ; and 
that this result has been obtained without including the sixty 
or seventy thousand white males above 21 years of age, 
who, by Mr. Fisher's own calculation, are so utterly destitute 
as to be unqualified to vote. The number of actual voters 
at the Presidential election in 1848, was, however, but little 
over 92,000, leaving, if we take the number strictly, a much 
larger proportion of white males above 21 years, who, not 
being heads of families, or housekeepers, cannot buy the 
right of suffrage with a $25 freehold — making it equal to 
nearly half the whole white population over 21 years of age. 
And this is the degree of " diffused" comfort indicated in 
Virginia by the number of pleasure carriages ! It carries 
its own commentary. 

The next illustration is a comparison of the number of 
houses built in the respective States. 

" The proportion of dwellings built in a year, is another 
indication of comfort, and the degree of its diffusion among 
a people. According to the returns of the marshals in 1840, 
Massachusetts, whose white population is nearly the same 
with that of Virginia, built 324 brick houses in that year, 
Virginia built 402, or nearly one fourth more. Massachusetts 
built 1249 wooden houses the same year, Virginia, 2604, or 
more than double. The cost of the houses in Massachusetts 
was $2,767,134 ; in Virginia, only $1,367,393, or about half. 
Now if this excess in the cost of the houses of Massachusetts 
be attributable to the excess of business, or manufacturing 
structures among them, it swells the proportion of dwellings 
built in Virginia, and thus displays a still greater progress in 
comfort among the population of the latter. But if the ex- 
cess of cost in Massachusetts is owing to the superior style 
of her dwellings, it proves, since the number is so much less, 
a still greater inequality of property. A comparison of the 
houses built in New York the same year with those in Vir- 
ginia, exhibits similar results. And I will add that the same 
thing is true, by a comparison between Virginia and Ohio, 
although one is considered the most declining, the other the 
most advancing State in the Union ; one supposed to be the 
most unequal in the distribution of property ; the other the 



43 



reverse. In 1840 Ohio built 970 brick, and 2764 wooden 
houses, at a cost of $3,776,823. Thus, whilst we had twice 
the white population, we built only a fourth more of houses. 
Kentucky also, as well as Virginia, surpassed Ohio in this 
respect. Kentucky built 485 brick and 1757 wooden houses ; 
thus with only 40 per cent of Ohio's white population, she 
built 75 per cent of the number of houses Ohio did." 

We have underscored the words " white population" in the 
extract, that the reader may not fail to remark the originality 
of a calculation by which the black population of Virginia, 
both slaves and free — a population, amounting, in 1840, the 
year given, to 498,829 — equal to more than two thirds of the 
whole population of Massachusetts, — that this vast popula- 
tion is assumed, in Mr. Fisher's estimation, not to live in 
houses at all ; but that the number of houses built in Vir- 
ginia is to be proportioned to the white population alone ! — 
a novel prerogative of color, and one which Mr. Fisher will 
hardly succeed in establishing. 

We present in a tabular form the number of houses and 
their cost, built during 1840, in these States : 



The difference in the cost is a troublesome item. It is in- 
convenient here to apply the rule of " average in propor- 
tion to population;" for, applying that scale, and drawing con- 
clusions precisely as heretofore, the" average" cost of houses 
in Massachusetts being so much greater, would indicate an 
" average" of better houses, and of course a greater " aver- 
age" degree of comfort. It becomes therefore necessary to 
forestall this conclusion, by suppositions founded on col- 
lateral knowledge, and it is supposed that some of these 
houses in Massachusetts were built for warehouses and fac- 
tories : in that case, it swells the proportion of dwellings in 
Virginia ; if the excess is owing to the superior style of the 
dwellings of Massachusetts, it then goes to prove the " greater 



Brick and Stone. 



Wooden, 
1,249 
5,198 
2,604 
1,757 
2,764 



Cost. 



Massachusetts, 
New York, 
Virginia, 
Kentucky, 
Ohio, 



324 
1,233 
402 
485 
970 



$2,767,134 
7,265,844 
1.367,393 
1,039,172 
3,776,823 



44 

inequality of property ;" that it proves something or another 
in favor of Virginia, " any how you can fix it." We might, 
with equal propriety, and much greater probability, assert, 
that both these issues tend to demonstrate that the people of 
Massachusetts had already comfortable dwellings, and that 
the Virginians had not. But until the character of these 
houses is ascertained, all these speculative conjectures are 
gratuitous. 

" The fact is, that Virginia and Kentucky constructed in 
that year, more buildings in proportion to their whole popu- 
lation black and white, than Ohio and Massachusetts. This 
result does not appear, indeed in the cities, or in the principal 
streets of cities, and therefore has not come to the knowledge 
of fugitive and superficial observers, or newspaper item- 
mongers, but it is demonstrated by the labors of the officers 
of government who were required to visit the country as 
well as the towns, the by-ways, as well as the high-ways, 
and it is triumphant evidence of the extraordinary aggregate 
prosperity, and wide-spread individual comfort of the States 
which have been selected by the new school of politicians 
and political economists, as the objects of their sympathies 
and victims of their theories." 

This is really " triumphant" evidence ! The difference, it 
is true, is a fraction in favor of Virginia and Kentucky. But, 
if even all the other premises were ascertained, and were 
equal, the character of these houses remains to be defined. 
How many of the brick houses in Virginia were smoke- 
houses ? And how many of the wooden houses were log- 
cabins of one apartment — negro quarters ? The answer to 
this question would probably give the key to the true reading 
to the excess of houses in Virginia, and the excess of cost in 
Massachusetts. Brick dwellings cannot be constructed on 
the by-ways of Virginia, except at a cost greatly dispropor- 
tionate to the cost of similar buildings on the highways of 
Massachusetts. The year 1840 was, to be sure, a great year 
for the erection of " log-cabins," all the States over ; but be- 
fore that year, a log-cabin any where in the State of Mas- 
sachusetts would have been an object of curiosity to Boston 
tourists; nor do we believe that there is a log dwelling- 
house in the State. 



45 



There is no doubt but that there were many log houses 
among the wooden houses built in Ohio, but of superior 
character, as indicated by the difference of cost — comforta- 
ble dwellings — not negro " quarters." 

" The same relative condition of comfort in the two respec- 
tive sections of the Union, is indicated in their food. Al- 
though Virginia is not an exporter of animal food, she is one 
of the greatest producers of it, of all the States. In 1840 
she possessed 1,992,155 hogs, which is almost identically the 
same number that Ohio had, although Ohio has twice the 
white population, and as is well known, is a large exporter 
of pork, whilst Virginia imports, in addition to her own stock 
every year a large quantity. New York with three times 
the white population, was materially behind Virginia in this 
respect. Now it is well known that the great mass of pro- 
visions produced in any State, are designed for domestic 
consumption, as the cost of transporting them to the dwell- 
ings of an agricultural people is too great to admit of their 
importation. Hence the products of such a people afford a 
good criterion of the character of their food. The stock of 
neat cattle in New York was 1,911,244 ; in Virginia it was 
1,024,148, the proportion of Virginia being still the greatest. 
In sheep ajone, was New York better off, having 5,118,777, 
whilst Virginia had 1,293,772, which however is only about 
150,000 less than her share. The proportion of poultry in 
Virginia is double that of New York. And in all these ar- 
ticles, Virginia is still more the superior of Ohio than of New 
York. So also is Kentucky. So that if it be said that New 
York is an importer of such provisions, and therefore con- 
sumes more than her production indicates, what is to be said 
of Ohio which exports them all. Now in determining the 
relative comfort of two civilized communities in the same 
climate, the quantity of animal food they respectively con- 
sume, is a well established criterion. Yet here is a State iu 
the warmer climate consuming the greater proportion. For 
when it is considered that the hog is killed for food at the age 
of 18 months or two years, and neat cattle at 5 or 6 years, it 
will appear that the excesss of animal food in Virginia or 
Kentucky over New York or Ohio is quite large, — is quite 
large, indeed even if we include the slave as well as the free 
population of the former States." 

We should hardly think it necessary to remind the reader 



46 



that this comparison also takes the white population only of 
Virginia for its element, were it not that the black popula- 
tion, which, in the last illustration, were deprived of shelter, 
are here assumed to eat no animal food whatever. If this 
position be not really intended, then the idea of proportion- 
ing the production of pigs and chickens to the number of 
white inhabitants, verges a little upon the ridiculous ; and 
were it not for the last sentence of the extract, which con- 
descends to include the whole population, we should dismiss 
the illustration altogether. We may here say, of thsi last 
sentence, that after much study, we are unable to discover 
the mysterious connection between the former and latter 
portions, or what possible sequitur is contained in it — how 
the fact " that a hog is killed for food at the age of eighteen 
months or two years, and neat cattle at five or six years," 
makes it appear that there is a greater excess of animal food 
in Virginia than there is in New York. We don't see the force 
of the induction. On the contrary, we affirm, that when it 
is considered that it takes from five to eight minutes to fry a 
sausage, and from nine to thirteen minutes to cook a steak, 
it will appear that the excess of animal food in New York 
or Ohio, over Virginia or Kentucky, is large — quite large ; 
and when we have said this, our inference is worth as much 
and means as much as does Mr. Fisher's. 

It is an old trick of the metaphysicians, to wrap a fallacy 
in so much absurdity, that, being incomprehensible, it an- 
swers all the purposes of demonstration with the disciples 
whose motto is, credo, quia non intelligo. The whole para- 
graph which we have quoted is a specimen of this sort of 
involution, and perfect of its kind. When Mr. Fisher asserts 
that Ohio exports the whole of her provisions, he destroys 
the force of his previous position, that the productions afford 
a criterion of the character of food — he forgets that he has 
just said, " that the great mass of provisions produced in 
any State, are designed for domestic consumption." Now 
he must either admit that the great mass of the provision of 
Ohio is consumed at home, and therefore that Ohio is much 



47 



more productive than Virginia, inasmuch as she not only 
raises pork sufficient for herself, but has a surplus for ex- 
portation, which Virginia has not; or he must admit that the 
production is no criterion of the amount of consumption — 
when he resents the supposed suggestion, that New York 
makes up her deficiencies by importation, he forgets that he 
has just before triumphantly declared, that " Virginia im- 
ports, in addition to her own stock, every year a large quan- 
tity." Now he must admit that the criterion is not a correct 
one, or, that the position of Virginia is, in this regard, no bet- 
ter than that of New York. 

The quantity of production of any article, may be in some- 
cases a criterion of the quantity of consumption ; but where 
the commercial intercourse is so unrestricted, and the facil- 
ities for transportation so superior as they are in the United 
States generally, it is not so. If the production of a State is 
known, and it is known also that the consumption is greater 
than the production, then to the limit of production we know 
the consumption ; but beyond that, nothing is determined, 
and New York may import twice as much as the production 
and import of Virginia together. Nor are we disposed to 
grant that the quantity of animal food which two States in 
the same climate respectively consume, is an indication of 
their relative comfort, except under circumstances similar to 
those under which and for which this criterion has been well 
established ; — which are these. In the old world, the States 
of which are densely populated, the first care is to cultivate 
the cereal grains from which bread is made. If land and la- 
bor enough can be spared from this cultivation, for the cultiva- 
tion of food for cattle, or for pasturage, a degree of agricul- 
tural prosperity is indicated, proportionate to the number of 
cattle which the land can support, in addition to directly sup- 
plying the wants of the population in grains. But in such 
States and circumstances, animal food is never eaten but in 
comparatively small quantities, and is regarded as a luxury. 
It thus becomes a criterion of the comfort of such communi- 
ties, and it applies elsewhere just so far as the conditions are 



48 



similar. Where the population is small, disproportionate to 
the soil, and countless numbers of cattle roam over vast tracts 
of natural pasturage, the boot gets on the other leg — the cri- 
terion of relative comfort is the quantity of vegetable pro- 
ductions, cereal grains, which they are able to obtain. Be- 
tween Virginia and the Pacific, in the same latitude, there 
are 100,000 Indians, who eat little else but animal food. 
There is a civilized, or rather, half civilized population too, 
in California, another in Buenos Ayres, which live almost en- 
tirely on beef and mutton, to whom what is called " comfort" 
is utterly unknown. But neither of these extremes exist in 
the United States. Here, instead of either being regarded 
as a luxury, or as constituting the chief article of food, it is 
plenty, but not excessive. Instead of being necessary to 
economize land for pasturage, there is enough for all pur- 
poses. There is, nevertheless, much difference between the 
respective States in regard to necessary occupation of the 
land for other purposes, and in the adaptation of soil and 
climate to the raising of cattle. In some parts of Virginia, 
of Kentucky, and of Ohio, there is much natural pasturage, 
which renders the raising of cattle the most profitable occu- 
pation of the land, particularly where there is either a scar- 
city of population, an indisposition to more active labor, or 
poor facilities for getting produce to market — it being easier 
to drive cattle than to carry wheat. Dependent almost 
wholly then on these and similar circumstances, is the quan- 
tity of production of animals ; and this knowledge acquaints 
us with the reasons why the production of animals ought 
to be greater in Virginia than it is in New York ; — the cir- 
cumstances are different — the climate, the soil, the popula- 
tion, and their habits and pursuits. 

In Virginia, hogs, cattle, and poultry subsist themselves 
during the whole, or nearly the whole year;— -the cattle, 
ranging the woods or pastures, which require none or little 
cultivation to renew them — hogs running almost wild, feed- 
ing upon roots and mast — sometimes fed on corn when about 
to be fattened. So in Kentucky, and to some extent in Ohio. 



49 



But in New York, the " fodder" for cattle during one half of 
the year must be provided by the labor of men. Thus, in 
1840, New York produced 3,127,047 tons of hay — Virginia 
but 374,708. Hogs in New York generally are kept in pens, 
and must be fed and tended throughout the year. The cost 
thus of production in New York is far greater than the cost 
of production in Virginia. The area of Virginia too is one 
fourth larger, and her population, black and white, about 
half — therefore more space for pasturage — and finally, the 
proportion of her industry invested in agricultural pursuits^ 
was, according to the census of 1840, over 84 percent. — 
that of New York but 69 per cent. It is only remarkable, 
then, in view of all these advantages, that the animal pro- 
duction of Virginia does not exceed in the aggregate, by 
three or four times, that of New York. 

Whether or not, an excessive consumption of animal food, 
in Southern climates, is most favorable to health, is a question 
for physiology to decide ; and it has decided it, long ago, in 
the negative. Variety and quality are much more essential 
to health in such climates than a monotony of diet, particu- 
larly flesh diet ; and every body knows — that is, every body 
who has had opportunities for personal observation — that in 
Virginia and the Southern States generally, in the country, 
there is very little variety in food. Bacon and greens, poultry, 
hominy and corn-bread, are the chief articles of consump- 
tion. The salted beef and pork, the fresh and salted fish, 
and particularly the numerous varieties of esculent vegeta- 
bles of the more Northern States, are comparatively dis- 
used. But if by "comfort" is meant general prosperity, it thus 
appears that the consumption of a given amount of animal 
food in Virginia does not indicate so great a degree of rela- 
tive prosperity as an equal amount of consumption in New 
York, since, the cost of production being so much greater in 
the latter State, the ability to purchase shows a correspond- 
ing greater degree of prosperity and wealth. In short, the 
States of Virginia and Kentucky are more assimilated, in 
regard to facility of animal production, to California and 
7 



50 



Buenos Ayres, — New York and the New England States to 
the countries of the old world, where the greater production 
of animals is really an indication of prosperity. It is thus 
seen that the conditions of the contrastive comparison are 
unequal. But were we to grant them equal, and the deduc- 
tions legitimate, even then the statistics adduced fail to es- 
tablish the excess of consumption in Virginia and Kentucky, 
unless it is seriously intended to assert the inhumanity, that 
the black population are allowed no share of animal food 
whatever. We do not pause to criticise the easy accom- 
modation by which, in Mr. Fisher's argument, the present 
relative population of the respective States is made the ele- 
ment of a comparison with the relative production of 1840. 
This is a method peculiar and very necessary to this style of 
special pleading. We present a table, compiled from the 
census of 1840, of the annual production of the States given ; 
we add the total population in the same year, and the areas 
in the respective States. The " identity" alleged between 
the number of swine in Virginia and the number in Ohio, is 
remarkable as showing the latitude of Mr. Fisher's construc- 
tion of terms ; when a number reaches the " million space," 
a hundred thousand or so, makes no difference. 

TABLE, 

Showing the relative production of animals used for food, in the States herein 
given, from the census of 1840 — together with their total population, and 
areas in square miles. 

New York. Virginia. Ohio. Kentucky. 

Population, 2,428,921 1,239,797 1,519,467 779,828 

Area in sq. miles, 46,220 65,700 40,500 40,023 

Neat cattle, numb. 1,911,244 1,024,148 1,217,874 787,098 

Sheep, 5,118,777 1,293,772 2,028,401 1,008,248 

Swine, 1,900,065 1,992,155 2,099,746 2,310,533 

Poultry, value,.. $1,153,413 $754,698 $551,193 $536,439 

It appears that Kentucky produces more swine than either 
of the other States ; and this fact Mr. Fisher has wisely 
omitted : for it would be folly to tell the Kentuckians that 
they eat them all. No — even if a large consumption of ani- 
mal food was an invariable criterion of u comfort," these cor- 
rected data of production afford but little clue to the actual 
home consumption in either of the States. Although Virginia 



51 



exports not much cured provisions, she drives annually large 
numbers of cattle and sheep " on the hoof" to the markets 
of other States. Ohio exports vast quantities of pork, but 
the great portion of the swine which " make" it are driven 
from Kentucky. New York too is a large importer and ex- 
porter both of beef and pork, and consumes more mutton 
than the other three States together, some of which she pro- 
duces herself, some of which comes from Vermont, from 
Pennsylvania, and even from Virginia. In fine, Mr. Fisher's 
reasoning, by which he graduates the consumption by the 
production, and graduates both by the number of white folks 
in the respective States, is as utterly without premises as it 
is without meaning. 

This course of reasoning— that of production in propor- 
tion to white population — continues in regard to the produc- 
tion of the cereal grains, or breadstuffs. 

"Virginia is the largest producer of wheat, the finest and 
costliest material for bread, of any other State, according to 
her population. Her crop of 1840 was 10,109,661 bushels; 
that of New York was only 12,286,418 • of Ohio, 16,571,661. 
All these are wheat exporting, as well as wheat consuming 
States, but still the great mass of that article must be con- 
sumed in the respective States of its production. In pro- 
portion to her white population, Virginia produces twenty- 
five per cent, of wheat more than Qhio, and two hundred 
per cent, more than New York." 

It is hardly worth while to reiterate the exposition of the 
fallacy about " white population." We can well believe that 
the negroes of Virginia, slaves or not, get but little if any 
wheaten bread ; but, until all the wheat produced in Virginia 
is consumed therein, and until it can be shown that New 
York consumes no more than her own production, the amount 
of wheat consumed is still conjectural. We here present for 
recurrence, a table, showing the aggregate production of 
breadstuffs and potatoes in the States between which the 
comparison is instituted, adding also Kentucky, which State 
Mr. Fisher has silently dropped from its accustomed position. 



52 

TABLE, 

Showing the aggregate amount of cereal grains and potatoes, produced in the 
States given; from the census of 1840. 

New York. Virginia. Ohio. Kentucky. 

Wheat, bushels, 12,286,418 10,109,716 16,571,661 4,803,152 

Barley, « 2,520,068 87,430 212,440 17,491 

Oats, « 20,675,847 13,451,062 14,393,103 7,155,974 

Rye, « 2,979,323 1,482,799 814,205 1,321,373 

Buckwheat, " 2,287,885 243,822 633,139 8.169 

Indian Corn, " 10,972,286 34,577,591 63,668,144 39,847,120 

Potatoes, « 30,123,614 2,944,660 5,805,021 1,055,085 

To prove in still stronger light the absurdity of undertak- 
ing to estimate the consumption from the amount of pro- 
duction alone, let the reader examine the foregoing table in 
connection with the number of white population. The white 
population was, in 1840, of 

New York, 2,378,890 

Virginia, 740,968 

Ohio, 1,502,122 

Kentucky, 590,253 

It appears that Ohio produced in 1840, a much greater 
quantity of wheat in proportion to her white population than 
did Kentucky, and a vastly greater relative quantity than did 
New York. Docs this demonstrate a greater amount of com- 
fort in Ohio than in New York ? Or does it show that the 
amount of wheat consumed by a citizen of Ohio is a third 
greater than that consumed by a Kentuckian, and more than 
twice that by a New Yorker ? Or, that a Virginian can con- 
sume thirteen bushels to a New Yorker's five ? Or a Buckeye 
eleven bushels, and a Kentuckian eight ? Or does it show 
even that the relative consumption of these States is in these 
proportions ? Most certainly nothing of the kind. 

Mr. Fisher proceeds : 

" How is the deficiency supplied in New York ? Not 
by importation, but by the substitution of potatoes, that 
cheapest article of vegetable food, to which the misfor- 
tunes or improvidence of Ireland have driven her. New 
York, instead of producing her proportion of wheat with 
Virginia, which would be thirty-five millions of bushels, in- 
stead of twelve, produces annually thirty millions of bushels 
of potatoes, and it is remarkable that Virginia, with nearly 
half a million of slaves, instead of resorting to this cheap 
food for them, produces only about three millions of bushels 
of potatoes, and provides her negroes with corn, of which 
her annual crop is about 344- millions of bushels, and which 



■ 



53 



is a more costly and substantial article of food. The ten- 
dency manifested by New York to prefer the cultivation of 
the cheapest, but the more precarious and less nourishing ar- 
ticle of vegetable food is also distinctly visible in all the 
Northern States, and is a fact which always deserves to be 
considered in any estimate of their present and future com- 
fort." 

" Not by importation." It is equally effective sometimes 
to be positive as it is to be correct, but we think hardly as 
desirable. The fact is that New York imports annually 
more wheat and wheat flour than half the product of the 
whole State of Virginia ; how much of this importation is 
consumed in the State, we do not undertake to specify, but 
we have not a doubt but that more wheaten bread is baked 
each day in the city of New York alone, than there is in 
the whole State of Virginia. 

Among that class of political economists to whom the 
science comes by nature, it has always been the fashion to 
abuse the potato, from the time of its first introduction into 
Europe. 

Of late years it has afforded a short and easy solution to 
what would otherwise be a very difficult question. Anxious 
to solve the " Irish Problem," their firs^ question is, in what 
do the Irish differ from their neighbours ? answer — almost the 
sole food of about four millions, is the potato; argot the potato 
is cause of all their poverty and misery. Excellent reasoning! 
Cobbett with his usual coarseness and violence, years ago 
got upon the track of this theory, and we had hoped had 
hunted it down. But it seems that it is started again ; we 
have lately seen in the newspapers that a Dr. Mudler has 
demonstrated that the potato has been and is, the cause of 
the physical and intellectual decay of all the nations which 
have encouraged its cultivation. We hope the time will 
soon come when writers on Political Economy will be ob- 
liged to give evidence of some knowledge of past history, 
present fact, and the natural sciences, before they can be 
accepted as authority. Now, although entire dependence 
upon any one article of food is to be deprecated, and partic- 



54 



ularly on one so perishable as the potato, yet it is demon- 
strable, both from experience and science, that the potato as 
a vegetable fulfils all the conditions of food for man, equally 
as well as do the cereal grains. Against all the theorists 
there stands out this one fact — that the potato was introduc- 
ed into Ireland about the close of the 16th century, though the 
cultivation did not become general until the close of the 
17th, and in spite of occasional pestilence and partial famine 
— in spite of the physical deterioration which the potato 
ought to have effected — in spite of emigration and the drain 
upon the people for soldiers, the population of Ireland has 
quadrupled in a little more than a hundred years ! a natural 
increase without parallel in the political records of modern 
Europe. 

The population of Ireland was in 

1731,... 2,010,221 

J 821, 6,801,827 

1831, 7,767,401 

. 1841...... 8,175,273 

The increase from 1821 to 1831 was 14.19 per cent.; that 

of Virginia during the same period was 13.70 per cent., 

from 1831 to 1841 the increase in Ireland notwithstanding 

the vast emigration, was 5.25 per cent; that of Virginia 

from 1830 to 1840 was but 2.34 per cent.; we do not intend 

to a ; sert, that the peculiar food of the Irish is the sole cause 

of this great prolificness; but the fact establishes, so far as 

fact can, that their food was*, to say the least, sufficient for 

the purposes of animal economy. It seems always to be 

taken for granted, that Ireland is the only European country 

where the potato is cultivated as a cheap article of food for 

the poorer classes, but it is not so; in Switzerland, parts of 

Hungary, Poland, Germany and France, in the North of 

England and in Scotland, the potato has in great measure 

superseded the oats and pulse which formerly constituted 

the food of the lower classes, and it has done so, because 

experience has shown, than an acre of potatoes will subsist 

more persons, than will an acre of wheat — and at a much 

less cost of production; the crop too, is generally more 



55 



certain. The blight, the fly, and other diseases to which 
the cereal grains are continually subject, have always been 
as disastrous to the comforts of the poor, as of late years 
has been the rot of the potatoes. The Irish have no thrift — 
they make no wages — they produce each year only sufficient 
for the current annual consumption — they accumulate noth- 
ing, and a partial failure of the potato crop, produces great 
distress — all of which is charged upon the potato. Nobody 
doubts but that it would be judicious to substitute, in some 
degree, their old food, oats or Indian corn, which can be 
preserved from year to year, if at the same time they can be 
taught industry and thrift ; but it is doubtful whether either 
or both of these can wholly supply the place of the potato 
as an article of sole dependence. It would be interesting to 
pursue this subject, did our limits permit the digression, nor 
can we refrain from adding, that the progress which within 
a few years has been made in the science of organic chem- 
istry, and in the knowledge of the relations of the vege- 
table and animal kingdom, afford satisfactory reasons why 
the facts are, as given by experience, so different from the 
assumed positions of the theorists. The functions of food 
are divided into nutritive, and respiratory or calorifent, and 
it is established, that food in which the proportions are as 
1 of nutritive matter to 7 and upward of calorifent, is 
sufficient for all the wants of animal consumption in cir- 
cumstances where no extraordinary muscular exercise is 
required. Now although it is true that the proportion of 
nutritive matter in a given volume of wheat or Indian corn 
is greater than it is in the same volume of potatoes, the re- 
lation of the nutritive to the calorifent matter is nearly the 
same in potatoes, that it is in wheat ; the relation in wheat 
is as 1 to 8, in potatoes as 1 to 9, so that as an article 
of food, the potato is as valuable as is wheat, except 
that the latter is more durable and compact. But these 
latter qualities affect the commercial value alone; they rath- 
er detract from its value in relation to the animal economy, 
for there are certain conditions in the adaptation of food to 



56 



the digestive organs, which the greater balk of the potato 
fulfils better than does the lesser volume of the wheat. 

We return to our text. Cobbett found fault with potatoes 
because they were dirty; Mr. Fisher sneers at them because 
they are cheap; if by " cheap" he means that the food is of a 
less healthy character than corn, the answer is already 
given; and if he means that a bushel of potatoes can be 
bought for less money in the interior of New York than a 
bushel of corn, we shall not dispute it; but if he means that 
it would be cheaper to raise potatoes in Virginia, than corn; 
that potates are cheaper there than corn, and that it is the 
magnanimity of the masters, which provides her negroes 
with corn, and which is a more costly and substantial article 
of food, — then we take exception. The plain fact is, that 
Virginia cannot raise the Irish potato, and so far from corn 
being " more costly," a bushel of " Northern potatoes," is 
worth in the markets of Eastern Virginia, on an average 
the price of nearly two bushels of corn. Every body who 
knows anything about the markets of Norfolk, of Richmond, 
or of Washington, knows this to be so, and that" Yankee" 
potatoes, which Mr. Fisher affects to despise, are in these 
cities, comparatively a luxury, and held in high estimation 
as " a costly and substantial article of food;" yet Mr. Fisher 
thinks it " remarkable," that Virginia does not resort to this 
u cheap food," for her negroes, and adds, with the peculiar 
unction of impressiveness which always indicates a sup- 
posed original idea, that " the tendency manifested by New 
York to prefer the cultivation of the cheapest, but the more 
precarious and less nourishing article of vegetable food, is 
also distinctly visible in all the Northern States, and, is a 
fact which always deserves to be considered in any estimate 
of their present and future comfort ;" now it is no more 
" remarkable," that Virginia does not feed her negroes on 
potatoes, than it is that she does not feed them on cocoa 
nuts, and the reason is the same, she can't get them; they 
are not adapted to her climate; nor does the tendency of the 
Northern States to prefer the cultivation of potatotes deserve 



■ 



57 



serve any more consideration than the tendency of South 
Carolina or Louisiana to prefer the cultivation of rice to that 
of wheat and corn. 

The application of a few very plain and simple prin- 
ciples drawn from physical geography, discovers the total 
incongruity and dissoluteness of Mr. Fisher's whole argument 
in regard to the relative animal and vegetable productions 
of the States contrasted. The lower boundary line of the 
State of New York, is the forty second parallel, one third of 
the State, being north of 43° 30'; a little more than two de- 
grees of latitude intervene from the southern boundary of 
New York to the northern boundary of Virginia, while the 
greater portion of Virginia lies south of 39° extending to 
36° 30'; two and a half degrees. Lying upon the Lakes, 
New York is exposed to the full violence of the north west- 
ern winds, during three fourths of the year. From these 
influences, Virginia, "Old" Virginia particularly, is com- 
pletely sheltered. The degree of fertility which in the tem- 
perate zone, on the Western Continent on the shores of 
the Atlantic, is equivalent to a degree of latitude, has not 
yet been accurately determined, nor the relative positions 
of the various cereal grains, as regards their fecundity — suf- 
ficiently so, however, for generalized knowledge. In Europe 
where a long series of observations have established these 
positions, it is found that barley and oats extend into the 
highest latitudes; rye comes next as the substantive article 
of food. In the southern parts of Norway and Sweden, in 
Denmark, and the countries on the Baltic, a climate nearly 
equivalent to that of New York, wheat is cultivated almost 
solely as an article of export. Farther south, in the south- 
ern parts of Scotland, in England, France, and a part of 
Germany, the climate is of such a character that wheat is 
cultivated as a staple article of food for the inhabitants. Still 
further south, in Spain, Portugal, southern France and Italy, 
rice and maize appear, in addition to the wheat. 

ft is well known that the temperature is much higher in 
the countries on the European shore of the Atlantic, than it is 
8 



58 



in countries on the western shores in the same latitude ; 
the difference is from ten to fifteen degrees, varying accord- 
ing to different influences. Thus, the mean annual temper- 
ature of Paris is nearly equivalent to that of Richmond, 
Va. Humboldt observed, that on the table lands of Mexico, 
wheat flourished best where the mean annual temperature 
was not higher than 60 to 64°. Other observations have 
established, that the mean annual temperature between this 
this and 47°, is that best adapted to the full culture of this 
species of grain ; and as the mean temperature of Virginia 
is included within these limits, it follows x that of all the 
Atlantic States, that State, with Maryland, is best adapted, 
so far as climate is concerned, for a wheat producing State. 
The line of equal temperature does not follow the degree 
of latitude towards the west, but rises towards the north. 
This is one the reasons that Ohio is a much greater wheat 
growing State than the same latitude on the Atlantic. In- 
dian corn, too, requires for its full development a warmer 
climate even than does wheat ; and potatoes a colder cli- 
mate than wheat. In the valleys of the Andes, under the 
equator, the laws of climate in regard to the production of 
of plants, assert themselves in a much more marked and 
decided manner than in the insensible gradations of the 
degrees of latitude. The climate there is marked by alti- 
tude; every successive altitude of 400 feet, as estimated by 
Humboldt, being equivalent to a degree of latitude from the 
equator towards the poles. The traveler, within twelve 
hours, from the valley of Guyamba to Quito, passes succes- 
sively from the fields of rice and sugar cane, through the 
belts of maize, of wheat, of rye, and of potatoes. Thus 
Virginia produces corn, and New York " prefers" potatoes, 
because they are the productions to which their climates 
are respectively best adapted. The corn of Virginia is pro- 
duced in a profusion, and with a luxuriance unknown in New 
York, while in the production of potatoes the case is reversed 
— they are poor in quality and meagre in quantity — watery, 
small, and few in a hill. We may here remark, that the " po- 
tatoes" included in the census returns, as the production of 



59 



the Southern States, are not the " Irish, 1 ' {solarium tuberosum]) 
but the "sweet" potato, (convolvulus battatas,) the cultivation of 
the sweet potato being mostly south of the fortieth degree-- 
that of the " Irish" north of that line. If the " Irish" are culti- 
vated at the South, it is as the " sweet" are cultivated at the 
north — as a luxury, and not as a staple of consumption. 
Knowing all these things, of what force is the charge, 
that New York does not produce, relatively, so large an 
amount of wheat and corn ? Let us see how the rule will 
work the other way. May Virginia reproach South Caro- 
lina, that, with a population of 259,084 in the year 1840, 
she produces annually but about 1,500,000 bushels of wheat, 
and supplies the deficiency by the substitution of rice, " a 
cheaper and less substantial article of food?" May South 
Carolina retaliate, and reproach Virginia that she does not 
produce her relative share of rice, in " proportion to white 
population ?" The difference in latitude between Richmond, 
Va., and Natchitoches, La., is no greater than the difference 
in latitude between Richmond, Va., and Rochester, N. Y. ; 
yet may Virginia reproach Louisiana with a lack of " com- 
fort," because she produces no wheat at all, or so little that 
it is not worth enumerating? Of course this is absurd, and 
the rule as applied to Virginia and New York is no less so. 
Yet all this difference of circumstances, Mr. Fisher has ut- 
terly disregarded ; and the States have been compared and 
contrasted as seriously and with as much apparent simpli- 
city, as if their climates and capacity of production were 
equal, and were the same. We may add, that Mr. Fisher, 
in continuation of this argument, introduces a statement 
from the Boston Atlas, of the comparative agricultural pro- 
duction in Massachusetts for the years 1840 and 1845, from 
which it appears that the production of the latter year was 
not so great as of the former — that agriculture is rapidly de- 
clining in that State — and particularly, that the " farmers of 
that State consume but little wheat bread," etc., etc. We 
have already shown the nonsense of attempting to predi- 
cate the amount of consumption upon the amount of pro- 



60 



duction, as regards New York — the case of Massachusetts is 
still stronger. It is not pretended that there is any decline in 
her wealth ; and the only indication afforded by the alleged 
decrease in the production of the cereal grains, is, that it has 
become cheaper to buy wheat than it is to grow it. The 
grain growing districts of Western New York and of Ohio 
are now nearer to Boston than ten years since was the west- 
ern part of Massachusetts — wheat flour is cheaper, and pro- 
bably much more is consumed now than when the produc- 
tion of wheat by the State itself was greater. 

It is upon the strength of these statistics, which we have 
examined — none other — that Mr. Fisher bases his assertion 
of the superior wealth of the citizens of the Southern States 
" in proportion to their respective numbers," and its more 
equal distribution ! We have completed and elucidated the 
statements of fact on which this assertion is founded, and 
we submit that they tend only to demonstrate the natural ad- 
vantages of the States of Virginia and Kentucky, over those 
Northern States which are selected for comparison ; — that 
these disadvantages of the Northern States have been more 
than compensated for by the energy and industry of their 
citizens, resulting from their system of labor and the culti- 
vation of their intelligence ; that the case of Maryland ex- 
hibits in strong light the superiority of the mixed policy 
of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, in regard to 
the prosperity of a State over that of agriculture alone, as 
displayed in Virginia ; that a greater " average" individual 
property in the Southern States is founded on a deficiency 
in the first element of the wealth of a State — its population — ■ 
and, that the important allegation of a more equal distribu- 
tion of wealth therein, is utterly unsupported by either fact 
or well founded hypothesis. 

Mr. Fisher, after stating that " facts themselves may be 
powerless or pernicious to a mind not logical nor philosophi- 
cal enough to comprehend and classify them," proceeds as 
follows : 

" But it is peculiarly important to resort to statistics on this 



61 



question, because they are so much employed and perverted 
on the other side. From the speech of the Senator to the 
column of the Editor, we are continually assailed with sta- 
tistical comparisons between the North and South derogatory 
to the latter. In 1839 Daniel Webster presented in a speech 
to the Senate, in praise of Massachusetts, an official state- 
ment of her annual products, which amounted to nearly 
$100,000,000, which he characterized as the yearly fruit of 
her industry and capital. This would strike every mind as 
evidence of great productiveness and profit in a State of her 
population ; since the annual product of Vp-ginia is only 
about seventy millions. But on scrutinizing the Massachu- 
setts statement, it is found that Webster included as the pro- 
duct of her industry, the raw material employed in her man- 
ufactures obtained from other States; the raw cotton, the 
wool, the raw hides, the dye stuffs, &c, &c." 

Mr. Fisher should have exercised more care and greater 
accuracy in his specifications to prove perversion on the 
"other side," if he would avoid the imputation of being 
himself one " whose mind is not philosophical enough to 
comprehend" Mr. Webster's statement; we are not familiar 
with this individual statement, said to have been presented 
to the Senate in 1839, and cannot therefore determine how 
much latitude should be given to the term " nearly;" but we 
know that legitimate estimates of the annual production of 
the New England States, drawn from the very imperfect and 
understated returns of the census of 1840, one year later, 
show it to have been " nearly" $200,000,000, and that the 
production of Massachusetts was nearly one half of this. 

Again we know that Mr. Webster, never " perverted" 
statistics — he can descend to no such meanness, — nor, where 
we have anything to say or do in the premises, shall his 
reputation in this regard be made responsible for anybody's 
stupidity. He never employed statistics, the constituents of 
which he did not thoroughly understand, and the details of 
which he did not believe to be perfectly authentic. He never 
presented statistics to the Senate or to any other body which 
would not stand the test of the severest scrutiny which the 
political- economists-by-instinct were capable of instituting; 



G2 



and this present statement will bear a great deal more 
" scrutiny," than Mr. Fisher has bestowed upon it. 

If this raw cotton, wool, hides, &c, obtained by Massa- 
chusetts from other States, be not the product of her in- 
dustry, we wish somebody would tell us what it is the pro- 
duct of? Is it a product of her idleness ? Is it a product 
of the generosity of the other States ? Is it a free gift from 
these other States ? How did the people of Massachusetts 
get it ? Did they wake up one morning early and find it ? 
Did not Massachusetts render an equivalent value, either in 
money or manufactures for this raw material, and was not 
this money or manufactures the product of her industry ? It 
strikes us as indicating rather a limited acquaintance with, 
the character of statistical computations in political economy, 
and indeed in every day " business;" — it is somewhat of an 
agricultural idea — the supposition that nothing can be legit- 
imately considered as the product of the industry of a people, 
but what grows up out of the ground. In statistics of pro- 
duction, the term " produce of the soil, or sun," comprises all 
articles of vegetable production, unmanufactured; the term 
u produce of industry," strictly applies only to works of hand 
— manufactures; — they are so used in the European States. 
In the United States, the term " industry," is more compre- 
hensive, including agricultural productions. But computa- 
tions of agricultural and industrial productions, respectively, 
are estimated differently. The farmer counts as the produce 
of his industry, the returns from the cultivation of the soil — so 
many bushels of wheat — so many bales of cotton, at such 
and such prices, whether sold or consumed at home. The 
manufacturer counts as the produce of his industry, not the 
returns of his loom or forge, at estimated prices, but the 
returns from the actual sale of his cloth or metallic fabrics ; 
the merchant counts his profits, and the navigator his 
freights, and whatever shape these returns take, whether 
money, houses, lands, bonds, bills, stocks, or raw material, 
the surplus values, at the annual "taking account of stock," 
above the " account," of the preceding year, are properly 



63 



and truly assumed as the product of that year's industry; 
" the raw material, the cotton, the wool, the hides, &c. &c," 
used by the manufacturers — the annual stock received in 
exchange for their goods, — is as much the " product of their 
industry," as it would have been, had it been estimated in 
the form of specie. Thus, then, it seems, that Mr. Webster 
was right in the constituents of his statement, and the only 
difficulty about it, is, what might have been assumed with- 
out fear of competent denial, that Mr. Webster knew better 
what he was about, than does his critic. 

" It was but the other day that we had an extract from the 
Report of the Commissioner of Patents, published in all the 
papers, which undertook to give us an estimate of the wealth 
of the respective States. On examination, it is found to as- 
sume population as the basis of wealth. An average is 
made of the wealth of each man in a few States, and that 
is multiplied by the number of men in each State. By this 
rule, Indiana, which is more populous than Massachusetts, 
has more wealth — and the North of course, greatly more 
than the South. The Commissioner of Patents is a Northern 
man ; and travels deliberately out of the sphere of his duties 
to make up and send forth this absurd table — and in thus 
undertaking officially and officiously to enlighten the ignor- 
ance of the people, displays his own." 

Here is an instance where the factitious rule of " wealth 
in proportion to population," in other hands, does not work 
to suit Mr. Fisher — and those the hands of a political ally. 
" The Commissioner of Patents is a Northern man," and 
this estimate is brought forward to illustrate the allegation 
that the " North" uses and perverts statistics. Such North- 
ern men find no apologist in us. Appointed by Mr. Polk, 
the first return he made for his office, was to " travel delib- 
erately out of the sphere of his duties," by preparing a series 
of labored essays in support of the South Carolinian doc- 
trines of £ free trade;' " these essays, first published in the 
Union, over the signature of " Bundlecund," were after- 
wards printed in pamphlet form, and industriously circulated 
throughout the Northern States, " to enlighten the ignorance 
of the people." They were " absurd"— equally so with this 



64 



estimate of " wealth in proportion to population;" so absurd 
that they were deemed perfectly harmless, and not worthy 
an answer. It is rather unkind, now, when he accidentally 
" displays his ignorance," in such a manner as not to please 
his friends, that they should so unceremoniously rap him 
over the knuckles. 

It is unnecessary to quote the argument by which Mr. 
Fisher proceeds uselessly to demonstrate the superior pro- 
ductiveness of agriculture over manufacture — nobody ever 
denied that the fecundity of nature could not be rivalled l)y 
art. But since the argument indirectly assumes that the 
admixture of manufactures in the Northern States prejudices 
the success of agricultural productions, we request the reader 
to turn back to page 28, and inspect the estimate by Prof. 
Tucker. Nor have we space more than to allude to the 
"history" by which the position is enforced. The instances 
adduced, are, in our judgment, all arguments in favor of a 
" mixed" system. The whole argument that agriculture is 
the most profitable pursuit for a community, involves the 
supposition, that if every body in a community devoted him- 
self to agriculture, each individual and the whole commu- 
nity would be equally and continually prosperous ; yet the 
very examples of the successes of agriculture, adduced by 
Mr. Fisher, all tend to demonstrate the folly of dependence 
for any necessary of life upon others. If Esau had not been 
a hunter solely, he never would have been compelled to al- 
low Jacob to cheat him out of his birthright. If the family 
of Jacob had raised corn as well as cattle, they would not 
have become dependent on the granaries of Egypt. These 
and similar are Mr. Fisher's examples, — taken, as all exam- 
ples are by the theorists, from a state of semi-barbarism to 
illustrate civilized associations, — by which he demonstrates 
from history the power of agriculture. But the first note in 
music is far from being attune, and the first page in the 
record of the political experience of human-kind is as far 
from being its history. The experience of modern civiliza- 
tion has taught, that a purely commercial, or purely manu- 



65 



facturing, or purely agricultural community can never be in- 
dependent. Experience has taught that a judicious division 
of labor among these three elements of independence, not 
only promotes excellence in the various individual branches, 
by exciting competition, but that all reciprocally stimulate 
each other. Manufactures and agriculture originate com- 
merce, while commerce and manufactures make a home mar- 
ket for the increased productions of the soil. If agriculture 
be not in this way developed, the whole industry settles 
down into producing barely enough for the consumption of 
the producers themselves. Idleness, cessation, retrogression, 
are the results, and the State or nation sinks into an imbe- 
cility for which there is no cure. We quote one of the state- 
ments in relation to the present condition of the " purely 
agricultural" States : 

" The agriculture of the South produces a greater variety 
and abundance of the staple articles of human comfort and 
subsistence than that of any other region. Besides such 
breadstufFs and provisions as the North affords, the South 
has, by the superior genius and energy of her people, ac- 
quired almost a monopoly of the cotton culture. The South 
thus controls an extraordinary proportion of that food and 
clothing which the world consumes, and hence makes a cor- 
responding progress in wealth." 

This assertion is rather hazardous to the author's reputa- 
tion for knowledge. " The South" proper, controls none of 
the food which the world, out of her own limits, consumes. 
Not even an ordinary proportion of the food which the world 
at large consumes, is produced in the United States — and 
but a small proportion of the amount which these States af- 
ford, is produced in the South. The " control" too, exercised 
by the South over the " clothing" of the world, is of very 
peculiar character. It is a " control" which is a dependence. 
Does the South control the price of her own cotton ? Power, 
like charity, begins at home. Price or value depends upon 
the demand and supply ; and, allowing the South " almost a 
monopoly of the cotton culture," she controls but one, and 
9 



66 



that the submissive, and not imperative element. Her sup- 
ply is raised at a venture, and the demand then regulates its 
value. Even the mixed system of the Northern agriculture 
is less precarious than the unitarian system of the South. 
The whole industry of the cotton planter is invested in the 
cultivation of one article. It is like all investments — an un- 
certain venture. If, from causes which he knows nothing 
about, and over which he has no more control than he has 
over the winds, there is a fall of 5 or 10 per cent, on the 
price of last year — the price hoped for — calculated on— he 
suffers 5 or 1 per cent, loss on the investment of his whole 
industry. So in the cultivation of any single staple, coffee, 
or wheat — so in unitarian investments of all kinds. The 
farmer of the Northern States raises, according to the ca- 
pacity of his farm, a variety of such productions as he in- 
tends to exchange for manufactures, — wheat, rye, oats, corn, 
barley, hay, potatoes, and other esculent vegetables — cat- 
tle, horses, sheep, hogs, wool, flax, hemp, hops, etc. etc. ; and 
if a depreciation takes place, he suffers only to the extent in 
which his industry is invested in the production of the arti- 
cle upon which the depreciation occurs. 

It is unnecesary to quote or comment upon the general po- 
sition urged by Mr. Fisher, against cities and towns, on ac- 
count of the greater tendency to indulgence, extravagant 
modes of living, luxury, and vice — the pauperism, crime, and 
greater relative mortality than in the country. This disad- 
vantageous comparison has been drawn in every age. The 
whole argument against the congregation of men in cities, 
founded on these premises, is as old as the time of Aristotle, 
and from that time to the present has been successfully reit- 
erated, or successfully disputed, according to the character 
of the premises. Some of the particular statements in re- 
gard to the cities of the Northern States, seem, however, to re- 
quire attention. After patronizing the cities, by generously 
observing that the "average wealth" of their inhabitants 
" amost equals that of prosperous agricultural States," Mr. 
Fisher proceeds to assert, that this wealth is not the product 



67 



of city employments, but is brought into them by " persons 
who have become rich in the country," and " who resort to 
the city because they cannot carry on agricultural operations 
extensively in the country, in free States ;" and that " this 
results from the high price of labor in the agricultural free 
States, and its inequality." How then did they become rich ? 
Nor is this the only contradiction ; for in another place he 
accounts for the pauperism which he charges upon the North- 
ern States, by the assumption that there is not occupation 
sufficient for the supply of laborers. There is no foundation 
for this assertion in regard to the sources of city wealth. 
Men who have spent, their lives in acquiring wealth by agri- 
culture, would make but poor conductors of extensive mer- 
cantile business : commercial pursuits require an education 
for those objects; — but upon this subject each one living in 
a city may consult his personal observation. The only fact 
brought forward to sustain this position, is the following : 

"Even in Boston for instance, it appears by a recent enu- 
meration, that nearly two thirds of the inhabitants were not 
born in the city; nearly one half are natives of the Union, 
most of them of course from Massachusetts, and the other 
New England States. In fact, not quite one tenth of the 
people of Boston, over twenty years of age, were born there. 
The total population of Boston in 1825, was 43,293, and in 
1845, the native population, instead of being double, was but 
41,076. So that there has been no natural increase of the 
population of Boston in 20 years. These facts afford strik- 
ing evidence, not only of the sources of Boston wealth, but 
of the rapidity with which it is wasted on its arrival." 

We must again remind the reader, that some collateral 
knowledge is necessary to a proper understanding of even 
correct statistic statements. Any one familiar with the 
topography of Boston, knows that it was originally as it is 
now — a peninsula, attached to the main land by " Roxbury 
Neck." It has no unoccupied back country, into which it 
could have extended its topographical limits. The only way 
in which it could increase its superficies, when the population 
became dense, was by reclaiming from the water ; and hence 



68 



the sites of many of the present most busy streets were for- 
merly covered by the tide. After getting to deep water all 
around, there was no other way for Boston to increase its ac- 
commodations for increasing population, but to grow up, like 
a tree — to add stories to the houses. The consequence of 
this natural restriction of limits is, that the city is more 
densely populated — some portions of it — than the most dense 
of the cities of Great Britain. In Liverpool, in the most 
densely inhabited portion, there are 17 square yards of su- 
perficies to each person — in Edinburgh 11, and in London 15. 
In Boston, in the first nine Wards, the population was, in 
1840, 1 to 39, and in 1845, 1 to 34 square yards; — while in a 
section of Ward 8, the population in the latter year was 
found"to be 1 to every 8 square }*ards. 

W 7 hen population becomes so dense as this, no one will 
reside in these thickly settled places, who is not compelled 
to do so. In London, the " city" is devoted wholly to busi- 
ness purposes. In New York, people move " up town;" in 
Boston, there is no up town to go to, and the inhabitants 
spread into the suburb towns, which are as much part of 
Boston as Millcreek and Fulton are parts of Cincinnati. Of 
the population of the city proper, in 1845, there were 77,077 
Americans and families, and 37,289 foreigners and families. 
The native born population was but 35.92 per cent, of the 
whole, and, remark it, of this per centage only 9.61 per cent, 
were over 20 years of age — the remaining 26.16 percent, 
being minors. Thus the statistics show what all, who are 
personally acquainted with the circumstances, know, that 
heads of families have their residences in the suburbs. Seven 
of these towns, immediately surrounding Boston, had in 1840 
a population of 37,612 — -in 1845, it had increased to 53,132, or 
59 per cent. This peculiarity increases. It is estimated that 
now, in 1849, the population of the suburbs, within a ra- 
dius of 5 miles, is about 210,000— that of the city, 130,000. 
The railroads, which ramify in all directions, extend the sub- 
urbs. Men whose daily business avocations are in the city, 
now reside ten miles or more in the country, and are no far- 



69 



ther from their offices than fifteen minutes' walk used to be. 
We again ask attention to Mr. Fisher's construction of the 
breadth covered by adverbs of quantity. He says, that 
" nearly one half of the inhabitants are natives of the city ;" 
— now the American population, which we have stated a 
few lines above, is more than double that of the foreign. 
Mr. Fisher proceeds : 

" But the most disastrous and appalling consequence of 
city avocations, is the waste of human life. In the city of 
New York, the deaths last year, exceeded 14,000, or one per- 
son out of every twenty eight ; and it was a year of no un- 
common mortality for that place. The great mortality of the 
eastern cities is supposed to belong chiefly to the emigrant 
population. But this is not the case. In 1836, when the 
deaths, were 8009 in New York, only a little over one fourth 
w T ere foreign ; and that must have been about the proportion 
of that population. In 1847, the deaths in the city of New 
York were 15,788, of whom only 5,412 were foreigners, al- 
though the mortality of that year was increased by the ship 
fever, which was very fatal to emigrants." 

It must not be forgotten, that Mr. Fisher, in his whole ti- 
rade against the cities of the North, on the score of a greater 
mortality, furnishes no statements whatever concerning the 
mortality of the Southern States — consequently leaving his 
reader without the means of determining the relative mortal- 
ity of those States to the Northern. This is of itself suffi- 
cient to invalidate any semblance of argument founded on 
the alleged mortality of New York, and the conclusions from 
which are entirely conjectural. Even the table of relative 
longevity is between Northern farmers and Northern mer- 
chants, etc. But when so little information on his subject is 
in possession of an author, it is not to be wondered at, that, 
so far as he goes, even, he should be, to say the least, in- 
complete in his demonstration. 

It has always been admitted that the apparent mortality 
is generally greater in cities than in the country, but for 
this, there are many reasons, in addition to the impure air, 
and the alleged greater tendency to vice, and greater prev- 



70 



alence of pauperism. Among the more prominent of these, 
is the fact, that hospitals are located in cities, and that a 
portion, — sometimes a large one, — of the patients, comes 
from the neighbouring country; and, if the city be a port, 
from other countries or states abroad. In New York, this 
is more particularly the case, than in any other city of the 
world of equal civilization. It is the port of annual recep- 
tion for thousands and tens of thousands of wretched for- 
eign immigrants, as w T ell as of travellers from all parts of 
the United States. Besides the deaths which occur in the 
city among the multitudes of strangers from other parts of 
the State or Union, from one-fourth to one-third of the total 
deaths are among the immigrants who have lately arrived, 
and whose diseases were contracted in their native countries 
or on ship-board. But when Mr. Fisher states, that the 
deaths are as one to " twenty-eight*" and that this is " no un- 
common mortality," he proportions the deaths to the resi- 
dent homogeneous population ; now, although this estimate 
may be correct, yet when it is made the base of an argument 
against the healthiness of the city, it becomes absurd. If 
we deduct this fourth, which no more ought to swell the 
relative mortality of the city population, than it should that 
of Dublin, we obtain the legitimate relative mortality. The 
Commercial Hospital in Cincinnati is situated in the 10th 
Ward ; and there would be precisely as much sense in an 
argument which, including the deaths within its walls, 
should proportion the whole to the number of citizens resi- 
dent in the Ward, and thus prove it to be the most unhealthy 
Ward in the city — there would be just so much sense in 
such a calculation, as there is in this, which attempts to 
demonstrate the relative mortality of the city of New York. 

The great influx of immigrants within the last 10 or 20 
years, who bring with them infectious diseases, and the 
mortality ensuing from which, is not confined to themselves, 
but extends to the resident population, accounts for the 
greater mortality of the latter years in the city of New York. 
Fourteen thousand, however, is an uncommon mortality. 



71 



In Boston, also the mortality presents a similar condition of 
circumstances. The proportion is about 4 per cent to the 
resident population, and the Medical Journal published in 
that city, states that a large proportion of the deaths are 
among persons of foreign birth. The mortality generally 
of cities in the United States, resulting from causes uncon- 
nected with either the morals or comfort of the citizens, is 
greater than it is in some European cities of equal civiliza- 
tion, — not so great as in others. 

The average proportion for the ten years prior to 1840 
was in 

Glasgow, 1 to 44 Boston, 1 to 38 

London, ....1" 39 New York 1" 37 

Paris, L " 33 Cincinnati 1" 25 

The mortality is greater at the west in the new city, than 
in the east, yet there is no room for the imputation that it 
is caused by the more dissolute habits or lack of comfort. 
In fact, whatever the argument of relative mortality may be 
worth elsewhere, it is worth very little to any political ques- 
tion or side of a question here. There is an insufficiency of 
reliable premises. We have seen some statistics, purporting to 
give the relative decennial mortality in the various sections 
of the United States; they are not satisfactory — for although 
there is sufficient general knowledge on the subject, to just- 
ify the position, that the relative mortality is not so great in 
Northern as in the Southern States, still the census returns 
of the different ages do not afford, in our judgment, data, 
on which to base calculations of a character complete 
enough to afford more than a very uncertain approximate 
estimate. It is unnecessary, here, to enter into detail of 
the importance or extent of the positions which must be left 
to the judgment alone in complex calculations from prem- 
ises which are in a great measure conjectural; but we re- 
mark that an indisputable table of the " movement of popu- 
lation," cannot be prepared for the United States until a 
record of the births and deaths shall be kept in every State. 

" According to an official statement of the duration of hu- 



72 



man life in the several avocations in Massachusetts in 1847, 
it appears that the average life of 



" This is the average life-time in the several occupations, 
beginning at twenty years. According to this, the three 
avocations of city life, merchants, mechanics and laborers, 
average about 46^- years, whilst farmers live more than 64|- 
years, or one third longer ! This enormous, I had almost said 
atrocious destruction of human life, which is continually 
going on in towns and cities, is enough of itself to account 
for the superior progress of agriculture in wealth. The loss 
of so large a proportion of time, in adult years, the expenses 
of sickness, and the derangement of business, make an ag- 
gregate of itself enough to sink any reasonable rate of profit 
or accumulation in any pursuit. And, hence it is that the 
South, which is so much exempt from the corrosive action 
of cities on property and population, has made such rapid 
progress in wealth." 

The table of relative longevity as we have before re- 
marked, is but a comparison of a general nature. That the 
life of the agriculturist is more conducive to health and lon- 
gevity than those pursuits which require a greater amount 
of physical and intellectual exertion, needed not the confirm- 
ation of either statistics or argument; nor would the con- 
tinued iteration of what has not been proven, " the rapid 
progress in wealth," require attention, except for its asso- 
ciation with the fact, that farmers live longer than merchants 
or mechanics, and hence the assumption or retro-inference 
that longevity is essential to the accumulation of wealth. 

Why is it, that when all these circumstances are so well 
known, — for it is no late discovery, — that men will still con- 
tinue to pursue those avocations, the almost inevitable ten- 
dency of which is, to shorten the allotted period of human 
existence ? Why do they still continue to congregate in 
societies, which according to their magnitude are called vil- 
lages, towns or cities ? Simply because the condition of man- 
kind is different now from what it has been; because the 



Agriculturists is 

Merchants 

Mechanics 

Laborers 



64.14 years 



49.20 « 
46.45 
46.73 " 



73 



importance once justly attached to longevity, no longer ob- 
tains, and that the doctrine of extreme longevity as an object, 
is not now recognised among the ends to be attained, or in- 
culcated in any system of civilized economy. As in all civil- 
ized life, men surrender individual and natural rights for 
the sake of those which are social and conventional, so do 
they yield the animal privilege of the purer air and unres- 
tricted physical action conducive, if not essential, to perfect 
and continuous health, for advantages which civilization 
deems equivalent. They yield the animal privilege of longer 
life for the means of attaining, by intense application and 
stricter self-denial, to the ends for which in civilized life, 
life itself is desirable — individual wealth, comfort, or honor; 
or, the only criterion by which man can be estimated in po- 
litical science — utility to the society of which he is a member 
or to mankind at large. The wealth which men early gain 
and employ in ameliorating the condition of those not so 
fortunate or sagacious, or in providing for the instruction of 
future generations — the knowledge which men acquire, 
compile, condense, simplify, and reproduce, for the use of 
those not so far advanced in intellectual attainment— these 
require that the condition of society should exist; that the 
duties of life should be shared and apportioned among men, 
that each with his undivided pursuit of one object may ar- 
rive therein at excellence. The value of man's life is not to 
be estimated by the number of years he lives, but by what 
he accomplishes, be his pursuits or objects what they may. 
In a state of barbarism, or even in primitive conditions of 
society, when all knowledge is acquired by experience, or 
from imperfect oral traditions, it is easy to see why long 
life should be one great end of living — why the oldest man 
should be the wisest man, and the patriarch be, and be re- 
vered as, the fountain of instruction, the repository of all 
knowledge, and the oracle of wisdom. The science of hu- 
man life — human government, was then, as it still is, exper- 
imental and progressive. The range of knowledge was 
limited, and the process of acquisition slow. The intellect 
10 



74 



of each man devoloped, and his reason formed itself from 
the evidences of his individual senses alone. He had no 
aid from abroad, beyond misty tradition, or the spoken ex- 
perience of a living elder, but one generation removed be- 
yond him. The experience of each was unrecorded, his 
opinions uncontrasted, and his judgment unconfirmed ; " he 
died and left no sign." But in an age of maturer civiliz- 
ation, in our own age, intellectual cultivation compensates 
for lack of years ; the accumulated wisdom, drawn from the 
recorded experience of centuries, which the oldest of the old, 
the wisest of the wise could never compass, is now within 
the power of moderate capacity and brief life. Age, simple 
age alone, has ceased to preserve its pristine attributes ; it 
has lost its relative importance to the wisdom and well- 
being of mankind, and working, active, intellectual man- 
hood obeys its own directing mind. Life is no race against 
time, it is a match heat, — and the goal to be won, is speedy 
honor and lasting usefulness. The tombstone which tells 
us nothing but " etatis," might as well have not been dug 
from its native quarry, if it say not also that " he lived for 
purpose." 

And what has wrought this change and brought this age ? 
Has digging in the ground? Has agriculture? Has lon- 
gevity ? Has the " primitive simplicity," of the Virginia 
planters, who " lived apart" — who " paid taxes in tobacco," 
— who " had no commerce ?" who " had no money, and 
less credit," and on the reminiscences of which palmy days 
Mr. Fisher lingers, as Don Quixote on the memory of the 
golden age ? Is it to these we are indebted for our present 
attributes as men ? 

But if we must, to please the theorists, regard longevity 
as the great object of existence — the criterion by which the 
happiness or usefulness of mankind is to be estimated ; if 
we take the argument as we find it — then from authority 
of their own selection, we prove the purposes of life are best 
fulfilled by the very state which so generally excites the 
deepest pity and commiseration. A state of idleness, of 



75 



wretched dependence, is that of the greatest happiness, and 
pauperism is the summit of felicitous existence. For, far as 
the farmer outlives the man of mind and action, farther, the 
pauper outlives him. From the same series of tables by 
which Mr. Fisher so conclusively demonstrates the desir- 
ableness of agricultural pursuits, we collate the average 
longevity of the farmer with that of the pauper ; which, then, 
if this argument be worth anything, is most desirable even 
for the acquisition of wealth ? 

Average ages in Massachusetts, according to the mortal- 
ity, in the years 

1844 1845 1846 1847 

Agriculturists 64.02 61.81 66.63 64.14 

Paupers 70.91 81.60 69.48 57.62 

Mr. Fisher next asserts that " a minute subdivision of 
farms and plantations among a multitude of proprietors, 
has been found fatal to agriculture." 

" It has resulted in France, in reducing the average size of 
farms to an area of three or four acres, held under their 
laws of descent by distinct proprietors. And in a part of 
Scotland, and in Ireland, tracts of a similar size are held by 
separate tenants. And it is precisely among the peasantry 
of France, the croftiers of Scotland, and the cottiers of Ire- 
land, that stagnation and desolation have overspread the 
land, and semi-barbarism and starvation, the people." 

Why go abroad for illustrations ? Why seek for facts, 
the result of different circumstances, to show what by theory 
ought to have been the case in the Northern States. The 
Northern States of the United States, have never known a 
condition of population like that of these countries — a class, 
kindred in blood but debased by inheritance; whose lot is 
to toil without hope, and labor without gainful recompense ; 
a barbarism past and prospective, to whom is given not one 
cheering glimpse of a happier future, and where the father's 
lot is his children's, and his children's children. Yet, does 
Mr. Fisher, by implication, assimilate these creatures to the 
small farmers of the Northern States — intelligent men, ex- 
ercising the rights of citizenship and manhood ; who have as 
motive for exertion, comfort, and the education of their child- 



76 



ren ; the consciousness that their children may become the 
equals of the highest of the earth: and are men with such 
stimulants to exertion, and intelligence to direct it, to be, 
by supposition even, assimilated to those poor creatures 
of the old world, who toil, as a cow eats grass — to live? And 
are we to be told that the position of these creatures is re- 
trograde, that they fall deeper into barbarism, stagnation, 
and desolation! and that this condition is the consequence 
of a " minute subdivision of farms;" — this is silliness. The 
condition of these people is to be judged not by the criterion 
of the condition of the people in the United States, but by their 
own past condition and the present condition of the people of 
the less civilised states of Europe. Contrast it with that of their 
fathers and grandfathers. Are they not better fed and better 
clothed ? are they not as people more humane ? Does not 
each year, if we except accidental famine, add to their com- 
forts ? This same minute proprietorship, upon which Mr. 
Fisher charges their comparative misery is the chief ele- 
ment of their gradual civilization. It is the only shadow 
of manhood they have. The identification of things with 
self— property — is the great humanizing agent of things 
temporal which they feel. In Scotland, where, a hundred 
years since, the peasant was worse fed and cared for than 
are horses in the United States, this same minute proprietor- 
ship Jias wrought a change in the whole character, habits, 
and condition of the people ; no country and no people have 
ever made, under such adverse circumstances, such rapid 
advances in civilization, intelligence, and comparative phys- 
ical comforts. In Ireland the case is somewhat different; 
the population increases without so marked a change in 
the habits of the people. Their staple, the potato, is suffi- 
ciently productive for subsistence with but little labor — they 
refuse to work for wages — they have no thrift, no accumula- 
tive industry. In addition to this, the system of rental and 
sub-rental is, without doubt, an oppressive one — and falls 
with undue weight upon those who are able only to hire 
the smallest tracts — upon the very poorest ; did they own 



77 



these tracts, or did they choose to be industrious, their 
misery and suffering would be much less. But no agricul- 
ture can thrive whether on large or small tracts, whether in 
proprietorship or rental — without industry and thrift. But the 
Irish will or do not work to accumulate — they will not work 
in manufactories — they affect the purely agricultural system. 
Like the purists in this country, they cry out " monopoly," 
and mob the manufactories ; much of their misery is 
of their own ignorant choice — the result of their own 
peculiar hot-headed careless improvidence. They raise 
potatoes enough to eat and for seed — a pig for rent — they 
live from hand to mouth, and if a crop fails, they starve, and 
sympathising but uninformed philanthrophy repeats the cry, 
which sixty years ago was truthful, and rails at the British 
Government. It is possible that the condition of Ireland may 
be improved, both in regard to the character of the agricul- 
ture and the character of the people ; but it will not be by 
enlarging her proprietary tracts of land, and by compulsory 
labor. It must be by the introduction of new employments 
and by stimulating their industry, by a higher cultivation 
of their intelligence. 
Mr. Fisher continues — 

" The division of land for cultivation into very small tracts, 
is destruction of its value. The soil of France is, on an aver- 
age, of unusual fertility, and its climate so genial as to be 
favorable to a great variety of productions. Yet, there, 
with a dense population of its own, and in the neighbour- 
hood of Great Britain, with its mighty cities, the greatest 
market in the world, the average value of land is only five 
or six dollars per acre — is less than in Virginia. In Eng- 
land the average size of tracts held by the several sorts of 
tenure, is about 150 acres, which is about as small as can 
be made profitable ; as small as is compatible with the due 
rotation of crops, a judicious variety of stock, and the prompt 
adoption of improvements in culture and utensils. In France, 
the owner of a three or four acre farm, worth only twenty- 
five dollars, cannot of course afford to buy an improved 
plough — much less can the renter of such a tract in Ireland. 
It would cost more than the whole crop is worth. Accord- 
ingly a large proportion of French and Irish tillage is per- 



78 



formed with the spade, at a great expense of manual labor; 
and accordingly, it is in England chiefly, where the tracts 
are large, that the modern improvements in agriculture have 
been made — and there the soil is more productive and pro- 
fitable." 

What is the authority for stating that the average price 
of land in France is but " five or six dollars an acre," or 
that " in England, the average size of tracts held by the sev- 
eral sorts of tenure, is about 150 acres," Mr. Fisher does not 
inform us ; — we believe both statements are incorrect. From 
an official report on the state of agriculture in France, we 
have condensed the following statement of the annual value 
or rent, — which Mr. Fisher has mistaken for permanent value, 
or price — of the land more than fifteen years since ; and as 
it will appear from a table which we subjoin, that the agri- 
cultural productions of France have increased nearly one 
hundred per cent in twenty years, it is not probable that it 
has deteriorated in either permanent value or annual rent 
since that period. 

The average annual rent was about $8 per acre — the high- 
est being in the Departement du Seine, $41.85 — the lowest in 
the Departement du Haut Alps et du Bas Alps, $1 .15 to 1 .20 ; — 
in this estimate are included both the forests and the culti- 
vated land. The soil of France has to support 168 persons, 
that of Virginia, but 19 persons to the square mile. 

We give the table of increase in certain agricultural pro- 
ductions. 

The product of France in 1826. 1847. 

Wheat, 166,400,000 250,500,000 

Rye, 101,600,000 162,000,000 

Meslin,*... 83,200,000 127,300,000 

Indian corn, 17,280,000 33,400,000 

Buckwheat, 23,200,000 32,200,000 

Oats, 88,000,000 155,230,000 

Potatoes, 23,200,000 41,700,000 

In England also, (from a parliamentary return) we find, 
that in the year 1831, the number of occupiers of land was 



* Rye, barley, spring wheat, &c. 



79 



236,343 — that the average size of tracts to each was 130 
acres ; and that of these occupiers there were 94,883 
whose tracts averaged but ten acres each. This is the 
latest official report on the agriculture of England that we 
have been able to obtain, and the estimate, among the 
141,460 occupiers who possess more than the average of 
ten acres, includes the moors and downs, the forests, the 
parks and pleasure grounds of the nobility. It is well 
known, generally, that the tendency of late years has not 
been towards a greater consolidation, and that the number 
of occupiers has increased — since experience has taught that 
it is more profitable to the proprietor to multiply the number 
of responsible tenants, for that large forces on large farms 
promote waste. 

But is there no cause, other than the size of tracts, why 
agriculture has prospered in England, and that more im- 
provements have been there made than in France? In 
England, agriculture has been stimulated and protected by 
legislation since the year 1463 ; for nearly two hundred 
years there has occurred no civil war, no foreign invasion 
to retard improvement, and to abstract the energies of the 
people from their accustomed and genial occupations ; each 
improvement has heralded another; and the progress of 
each generation has been but steps in the onward and con- 
tinuous march. In France, a series, almost unbroken, of 
these disasters has desolated the land, subverted tenures, 
diverted the energies of manhood to the battle-field, and left 
the meagre working of the soil to women ; the accumulation 
and experience of each generation hardly filled its own brief 
existence and perished with it. There has been no period 
of stability, where prospective returns for industry or in- 
telligence invested, could justify their exercise to that extent 
which all improvement demands ; and agriculture, like every 
industrial art in France, has remained precarious and unsus- 
tained. Thus the condition of agriculture in France and 
England neither sustains Mr. Fisher's argument in regard to 
the divisions of land, nor does it present one feature of ana- 



80 



logy with the condition of agriculture in the United States. 
And why go abroad for illustration ? We have not met one 
instance in the book, and we have met many, which so con- 
clusively shows the folly — the puerility — of reasoning from 
the results of one condition of circumstances, and thence 
predicating results to another condition which may perhaps, 
have one circumstance in common with the first. No man 
is fit to give an opinion — much less to give it ex cathedra 
until he has some perception that different associations of 
even the same facts, are in themselves evidence that the 
cases are unequal. No man can reason as a statesman, 
until he has learned so much of fact, as to know that no 
maxim in political economy is invariable in its application 
— that no axiom, generally admitted, is of value, except so 
far as the peculiar premises under which it has originated 
are identical with those to which its application is attempt- 
ed ; that similitude is not identity, and that a slight, a very 
slight difference in circumstances, may change the whole 
aspect of the case. But Mr. Fisher reasons differently ; one 
fact is enough to establish a theory; thus, agriculture is pros- 
perous in England, — it is not so much so in Ireland and 
France ; the tracts of land are larger in England than in 
these latter countries — therefore, " division of land into small 
tracts is destruction to its value ;" hence, by implication, 
the agriculture of Virginia, where the tracts of land are 
large, ought to be more prosperous than that of the New 
England States, where the average tracts are smaller. But 
some how or another, the facts always persist in not sus- 
taining the theory. It is perhaps, generally true, that the 
owner of a four-acre farm in France, or the renter of an 
acre in Ireland, cannot afford to " buy an improved plough," 
but there are farms, small farms, gardens, in the vicinity 
of Boston and New York, the annual product of an acre of 
which, is greater than of whole plantations in Virginia. The 
simple division of land into small tracts, does not in the 
least affect its value. When the natural fertility of the 
soil is exhausted, the amount of industry and intelligence 



81 



exerted in its cultivation, determines the amount of its pro- 
ductiveness. In 1840 the number of persons emploj-ed in 
agriculture in the New England States, was 424,138; the 
number of persons in Virginia — white persons — exclusive of 
300,000 black laborers— was 318,771; — the area of Virginia 
is larger than that of all New England — her soil and cli- 
mate adapted to abundant production, while that of New 
England is sterile and barren — the farms are large in Vir- 
ginia and small at the North ; yet the value of the agricul- 
tural production of these New England States in 1840, 
was $74,749,889, while that of Virginia amounted to but 
50,086,821. And the reason for this is, if there be one reason 
more conclusive than another, that in Virginia there has 
been no improvement on their original method of agricul- 
ture. Mr. Fisher says, that in France and Ireland, where 
the tracts are small, the tillage is performed with the spade, 
at great expense of manual labor, while in England chiefly, 
where the tracts are large, the modern improvements in 
agriculture have been made; and by implication, conveys 
the idea that such is relatively the case in this country, be- 
tween the plantations of the South and the farms of the 
North. In England it is perhaps true, that the mineral- 
ogical properties of the soil are more carefully attended to 
than here ; but in the matter of implements — labor-saving 
machines — New England is as far a-head of Old England 
as Old England is of Virginia. In Virginia there are indeed, 
some ancient ploughs of hereditary virtues, while in hand 
cultivation, they have hardly got so far as the spade. We 
firmly believe that a Yankee farmer would be puzzled to 
define the name and appliances of the thing called in Vir- 
ginia a " hoe" — a something between a pickaxe and the 
primitive idea of a cooper's adze ; — with this implement the 
negroes still continue to " grub up new ground," as they 
did two centuries ago. The " wood-axe" too, claims the 
same antiquity of descent with the hoe, and is probably a 
near relation, for it resembles it in general features. 

One of the first things which attracts the attention of the 
11 



82 



Northern stranger in Virginia, is the sight of large tracts of 
barren land in the outskirts of towns and in the neighbour- 
hood of plantations, — the country is chequered with them ; 
houses abandoned and falling, fences destroyed, and the 
soil given over to weeds and thistles. At first, the stranger 
in the simplicity of his heart — his education in this respect 
having been neglected — supposes these to be the evidences 
of the unhealthiness of the country, and that they have 
been abandoned on account of the influence of malaria. If 
their constant occurrence prompts an enquiry, he learns that 
they are the " old fields," exhausted by successive crops, and 
abandoned without any attempt at recuperation. They 
are, in Mr. Fisher's estimation, the " evidences of thrift," 
which the planters have written legibly upon the country 
they have desolated and deserted; for thus is "thrift" de- 
fined by him — 

" That some Virginians, instead of adopting some of the 
new methods of preserving and restoring the fertility of 
their lands, choose to emigrate to new States, where the soil 
is already rich by nature, and is cheap, results from a mere 
calculation and comparison of the cost of the two systems. 
And if it be found more profitable to remove to a new, than 
to renovate an old soil, it is an evidence of thrift, rather than 
poverty in the emigrant." 

Of all the cool assertions in the book, this is perhaps the 
most remarkable. It is evidence of thrift, when those whose 
grandfathers kept horses and hounds, an open door and a 
generous table to the stranger, when hospitality was pro- 
fusion and when liberality was recklessness, and they lived 
for themselves alone, without one thought upon their pos- 
terity — this is evidence of Ci thrift" — when, the lands worn out 
— their resources exhausted, the last generation disposing of 
their labor for subsistence* and the present scraping to- 
gether the remnants of the personal property, sell the super- 
annuated plantation for what they can get for it, and carry 
their altered fortunes to a new soil, where their pride shall not 
be wounded ! there perhaps, to repeat the devastation ! And 



83 



this is evidence of thrift ! very like the " thrift" of which the 
army-worm leaves the " evidences" in a field of cotton ! 

If there be any one principle in political economy, in 
which all men of all schools have and are agreed, it is that 
man has no right to destroy, except this destruction shall 
be clearly necessary for the preservation of human life or 
of political existence. Destruction of fertility is not included 
in the grant of rights of man to the earth, and reckless waste 
is next in criminality to wilful and determined devastation. 
We speak of what we have seen and what we know — we 
speak of" Old Virginia." A northern man can hardly realize 
the desolation of that section. We have heard that in the 
interior counties there are intelligent and thrifty planters 
who have taken warning from the results of the old "system," 
and do not scorn to be indebted to the Yankees for ideas of 
improvement. That we may not be charged with misrep- 
resenting the condition of this section, we will let a South 
Carolinian speak for us, — Mr. William Gregg of Charleston.* 
He thus speaks of South Carolina, which is a garden, com- 
pared with the desert of Old Virginia. 

" My recent visit to the Northern States has fully satisfied 
me that the true secret of our difficulties lies in the want of 
energy on the part of our capitalists, and ignorance and 
laziness on the part of those who ought to labour. 

" It is only necessary to travel over the sterile mountains 
of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hamp- 
shire, to learn the true secret of our difficulties ;" — " to learn 
the difference between indolence and industry, extravagance 
and economy. We there see the scenery, which would take 
the place of our unpainted mansions, dilapidated cabins, 
with mud chimneys and no windows, broken down rail fences, 
fields overgrown with weeds, and thrown away half ex- 
hausted, to be taken up by pine thickets; beef cattle unpro- 
tected from the inclemency of winter, and so poor, as barely 
to preserve life." 

It may perhaps, be demonstrable that the cultivation of 
cotton can be more profitably conducted on extensive plan- 



* Essays on Domestic Industry, Charleston, S„ C. 1845. 



84 



tations, where the natural fertility of the soil is not impaired ; 
but we are satisfied that nothing can ever recover the soil 
of Old Virginia, except a subdivision of the land into such 
small tracts, that they will come within the means of poor 
men. Large moneyed capital will not invest, where the re- 
turns must be so slow, and for a time, necessarily so small. 
The poor man, freeman, whose principal capital is his in- 
dustry, if he can obtain a tract of land cheaply, such as he 
can work himself, would be content to toil for years for pros- 
pective results ; manufactories being established would pro- 
vide him with a market for his esculent vegetables and 
grains ; and a few years, under this regimen, may bring back 
" Old Virginia," if not to her former opulence, to a degree 
of productiveness equal to the most productive of the new 
England States. The experiment of recuperating the soil, 
by the system of small tracts and free labor, has been tried 
to some small extent in Fairfax county ; it promised well. 
The neighbouring city of Washington furnished a market, 
and the desert began to " flourish as a rose." We have un- 
derstood that the jealousy of the planters in the interior 
counties, who supposed it a scheme for running off their 
slaves, is for the present putting a check upon the immigra- 
tion from the Northern States. This state of feeling is dis- 
couraging; and, if continued, it will be long before Virginia 
can resume the rank she once so proudly held. 

Mr. Fisher's next attempt is to show that the " natural in- 
crease " of population has been greater in the Southern than 
in the Northern States. To prove this he assumes that 
all the foreign immigrants have settled in the North ; 
that their number and their offspring together, amounted in 
1840, to 1,500,000 ; and this number is deducted from the 
white population of the north in 1840, in order to show the 
relative increase since 1820 ; and the increase is thus ob- 
tained at 60 per cent, for the north in 20 years ; but when 
the southern per centage is to be obtained, it is made 
to appear, by assuming that the whole immigration has gone 
to the north, to be 65 per cent. It can be proved that at 



85 



least 9 per cent, have gone to the south ; but it is unneces- 
sary to analyze further this statement, as we have already 
declared our conviction that no indisputable estimate of the 
" amount of population," in the United States, can be pre- 
pared from the present existing data. But Mr. Fisher has 
found an excess of males over females at the south greater 
than the excess of males at the north, and says, that the 
north " ought to have, to equal the south," an excess of 
97,000 more. We ask why? and the answer comes to us 
on the next page, that the excess of males at the south, is 
" the natural proportion of the sexes." This is rather better than 
funny ! He asserts, truly enough, that vice " destroys con- 
stitutional vigor, diminishes the number of children, and af- 
flicts the few who are born with hereditary infirmity and 
premature death ;" but when he asserts the greater immo- 
rality of the north, and gives this as a cause for the alleged 
deficit in the male population, he should, we think, have 
stopped to inform us where it is that the females of the north 
obtain their immunity from " hereditary infirmity." 

This discovery, and that of the " natural proportions of the 
sexes," are the more admirable, since they must have been 
made by the eye of faith alone, without any vulgar assistance 
from what men call knowledge. The fact is, " hereditary in- 
firmities " affect most the weaker sex, and if the argument 
was a good one, and a greater or less amount of " vice and 
immorality " was the sole cause of the difference in the pro- 
portions of the sexes in the two sections — the larger propor- 
tion of females at the north, indicates a greater purity of 
morals ; but the whole argument about the greater immoral- 
ity of the north being indicated by the excess of females in 
some of the old States, is as absurd, as the allegation of a 
greater mortality among the males is unfounded. With re- 
gard to the " natural proportion " of the sexes, either what 
it is or what it ought to be, nothing is determined as yet for 
the United States, nor can there be, as we have already said, 
until births and deaths are recorded with at least as much 
accuracy as the census returns are compiled. We regret that 



86 



our limits will not permit us to insert tables which we have 
prepared to show so much as can be shown with approxi- 
mate accuracy from existing data, in regard to this impor- 
tant subject, and the new and very peculiar aspect which it 
presents in the United States. A few general observations 
are all we can at present indulge in. 

It is indisputable that the mortality of the Southern States 
is far greater than that of the Northern — it is also indisput- 
able that there is a greater number of births at the south in 
proportion to population ; and if both of these facts were not 
so, it would be an exception to the whole recorded experience 
of the world. Equally undisputable is the fact, that in the 
South a greater proportion of females are born than men. 
In Europe, centuries of observation have established that, 
there the number of males born is about four or five per 
cent, greater than is that of females ; that the mortality is 
greater among male children, so that by the ages of 15 or 
18 the proportions are nearly equal ; that in adult life, from 
various causes the relative mortality among males increases, 
and the result is, that there is, and has been for centuries, in 
every European country a great excess of females over males. 
This " natural" proportion is so well considered and determin- 
ed in Europe as to form an important element in calculations 
for life insurances. Now in the United States, one circum- 
stance is the reverse ; there is, and always has been a large 
excess of males. The earliest immigrations were, as they 
have continued to be, principally of males, and the females, 
although they are much longer lived, have not yet assumed 
their " natural excess ,"' except in the oldest settled sections. 

In Virginia and North Carolina, and in all the New Eng- 
land States, with the exception of Maine and Vermont, there 
is an excess of females ; one reason being the emigration of 
males to the new States. There are reasons too why the 
excess of males in the north generally, should be less than 
the excess in the south. The northern male population bore 
the chief burden of the war of the Revolution and the war of 
1812; the whole or nearly the whole marine, both public 



87 



and commercial, foreign and fishing, — most of the Lake and 
interior river navigation, with most of the coasting, is 
manned from the Northern States ; no sailor, from a State 
south of Maryland, was ever heard of, out of sight of land, 
and the great body of boatmen on the western waters, are 
northerners. In addition, it is well known that there is a 
large emigration of males to the south, mechanics, overseers, 
professional men, and all sorts of less worthy adventurers ; 
that most of the active mercantile business in the States 
south of Maryland, is carried on by persons from the north. 
We cannot be exact, but we have not a doubt that there 
are from 50 to 100,000 males at the south who were born 
at the north. 

It could not be expected that a contrast of this nature 
should be put between the "North and the South," without 
a display of the usual amount of virtuous indignation in re- 
gard to the alleged privations, trials and suffering, of the fe- 
male operatives in the factories of Massachusetts. These 
are accordingly enumerated by Mr. Fisher ; and the climax is 
capped by the melancholy and heart-rending truth that they 
are " not permitted to receive a visit from a lover or a re- 
lative at the mill, except by the permission of the propri- 
etor's agent, or at the boarding-house, except by the per- 
mission of the proprietor's house-keeper." If this be not 
ironically intended as retaliation for the manner in which 
factitious sympathies are excited in behalf of the southern 
slave, by some ignorant or unprincipled pseudo-philanthro- 
pists of the north, then it can only be regarded as ridiculous. 
Do females ever " receive visits from their lovers " when 
engaged in their household avocations ? We shall institute 
no comparison between the physical comforts and intellect- 
ual acquirements of the Lowell operatives and the women of 
any other section of the Union. It is as utterly impossible 
for any one to form a correct opinion in regard to their con- 
dition without personal observation, as it is in regard to the 
condition of the blacks at the south. The evils which are 
found in connection with the factory system of England, it 



88 



is the habit of untravelled southerners to charge upon that 
of the New England States. But there is not the slightest 
analogy between the principles of the two systems or their 
operation, except that the end of each is the same — to man- 
ufacture goods. We have no hesitation in saying, that in 
our judgment, the slave system of the south, is preferable to 
the factory system of England. 

It must not be forgotten, that this " confinement," and this 
strict business and domestic discipline in the factory associ- 
ation of New England, which those in favor of the largest 
liberty for females so snort at — is voluntary ; that if the reg- 
ulations were left to the intelligence and good sense which 
these young girls possess, they would still, with little modi- 
fication, remain the same ; at any rate, this " discipline" 
meets the approbation of their natural guardians — their par- 
ents — who are quite as well qualified to judge of their pro- 
priety as is any man who lives at the south, and knows noth- 
ing whatever about them. There is a much larger liberty 
among the Pittsburgh operatives — when they strike for higher 
wages, they pelt the agents with mud and rotten eggs. 
Such results from liberty of action, do not contrast very 
favorably with the result of the strict decorum practised by, 
or if Mr. Fisher pleases, enforced upon, the female operatives 
of" the Model State of the North." 

But we believe the condition of even these Pittsburgh 
operatives to be higher in humanity, than that of the same 
class of females who in Virginia, work in the open fields . 
The condition of the Pittsburgh operatives who have been 
taken from the fields into manufactories, is, under the work- 
ings of association, and the advantages which spring from 
a well regulated private intercourse, constantly ameliorating 
— as a mass or as individuals they are constantly improving. 
This cannot be said of v the solitary female field- workers of 
Virginia — they are but few degrees, even now, removed 
from the condition of the " squaws" of the aborigines. 

There is no doubt a great deal of poetry in the indignant 
reflection, " that about seven-eighths of the marriageable wo- 



89 



men of Massachusetts, at a time of life that ought to be 
sacred to love and courtship, to pleasure and to hope, to 
home and to society, are sent forth from the parental roof, 
to labor for years, confined to an over-heated room, contain- 
ing a hundred persons each, confined to a space five feet 
square, for thirteen hours a-day, under a male overseer," &c. 
— more poetry than truth, for he talks as if they were driven 
and caged. Do ladies at the south, when engaged with the 
needle, wander about over a whole plantation, or are they 
" confined" to a chair or an ottoman? to just such sort of 
confinement are the factory operatives subject, and to none 
other. " This confinement to factories," continues Mr. Fisher, 
" postpones the marriage of the women of Massachusetts to 
an average of 23 or 24 years." What a horrible state of so- 
ciety ! But seriously, which system is most barbarous ? that 
which at the north provides an occupation for poor females, 
by which they may, with moderate industry, a species of la- 
bor not more arduous than the household employments in a 
farm dwelling, and much more healthy than needleworking, 
— accumulate a small property and a dowry; or the system of 
the south, which devotes the poor white woman to labor on 
the fields for a bare livelihood, from infancy to old age ? New 
England women, thank God, have never known a state so 
low in the scale of humanity, as is even now the lot of 
thousands of the country women in the " Glorious Old Do- 
minion." 

Pauperism in the Northern States is the next subject 
which receives Mr. Fisher's attention. 

" In the State of New York, the progress of pauperism 
has been rapid. In 1830, the number supported or relieved 
was 15,505. In 1835 it was 38,362 — according to Chapin's 
U. S. Gazette for 1844. In 1843 or 4, the number had in- 
creased to about 72,000 permanent, and the same number 
of occasional paupers, making a total of 144,000, as appears 
from the Journal of Commerce. These were for the whole 
State, and there was thus one pauper to every seventeen 
inhabitants. In 1847 there were received at the principal 
alms houses for the city of New York 28,692 persons, and 
out-door relief was given out of the public funds to 44,572 
12 



90 



persons, making a total of 73,264. So that about one person 
out of every Jive in the city of New York, was dependent, 
more or less, on public charity. The total cost, that year, of 
this pauperism was $319,293.88.* For this present year of 
1849, the estimate is $400,000, according to the Mayor's 
message. 

" In Massachusetts, it appears by the returns, that there 
were in 1836, 5,580 paupers, and in 1848, 18,693. These 
were all in the alms houses. Those relieved out of the alms 
houses, were 9,817, making a total of 28,510, according to 
the report of the Secretary of State of Massachusetts. And 
the returns from forty-one towns are omitted. If allowance 
be made for these, it will be seen that in Massachusetts one 
person out of every twenty is a constant or occasional pau- 
per. It thus appears that in these two States pauperism 
is advancing ten times as rapidly as their wealth or pop- 
ulation." 

It is not true, that " about one person out of five in the city of 
New York was dependent more or less on public charity;" 
nor that " in Massachusetts, one person out of every twenty 
is a constant or occasional pauper." A circumstance which 
involves more facts than one, is not demonstrable till all the 
facts are stated. A superficial or perverse reasoning may 
by proportioning the recorded number of the occasional 
recipients of public bounty to the resident population, 
make it appear to ignorant people that a large proportion of 
these citizens are in a state of destitution. This is done by 
Mr. Fisher, and though his conclusions are deducible from 
the premises he has advanced, those which he has sup- 
pressed or omitted, demonstrate his conclusion to be untrue. 
We put an analogous case. Last year, here in Cincinnati, 
at the time of " the flood," there were thousands of poor 
families, most of them from without the limits of the city, 
who were driven from their dwellings by the rising of the wa- 
ters— and were received into private houses, and into churches, 
and other public edifices of the city, and who were tempo- 
rarily " dependent more or less on public charity," yet who 



* American Almanac. 



91 



has there ever been so foolish as to think of proportioning 
these casual recipients of the public generosity to the resident 
population of the city, and including these as 4 ' occasional 
paupers ?" Was a steamboat load of diseased and famished 
immigrants to land at the foot of Broadway, and become im- 
mediately inmates of the alms house, the record of the alms 
houses would certainly present them as " recipients of the 
public charity ;" yet wdiat sensible man would, on this record, 
found an allegation, " that pauperism had increased" in Cin- 
cinnati, " ten times as rapidly as its wealth or population ?" 
Yet this is precisely the position of the paupers on the records 
of New York city, in relation to the resident population. The 
foreign immigrants become almost immediately on their 
arrival, dependent more or less upon the charities of the res- 
ident population, until they recover from their diseases, ob- 
tain employment, or are enabled to obtain the means of pro- 
ceeding further inland, — or rather, to commence begging their 
way. In the same manner, they become an " occasional" bur- 
den upon the towns and villages in the interior. It is as 
absurd to attempt to show the condition of the citizens of 
New York, by proportioning these paupers to the resident 
population, as it would be for a farmer in the interior, who 
allows a party of immigrants to sleep in his barn, and gener- 
ously gives them something to eat, to regard their condition 
as an evidence of destitution and wretchedness among his 
own family. If there could be found a farmer to raise such a 
lamentation as this, all the old women in the neighbour- 
hood would set him down as insane — and very justly too. 
Yet here is a gentleman, discussing a subject of so much 
gravity as political economy, assuming purely the same 
position, putting it forward with an apparent simplicity, 
and insisting upon it with a pertinacity, which it is difficult 
to reconcile with his reputation as a logician ! 

But what are the facts as shown by the record, in regard 
to the pauperism of the city of New York ? The number re* 
ceived at the principal establishments during the year 1847, 
was, as Mr. Fisher states, 28,692; number remaining, Dec, 



92 



31st, 5,549; average number 5,358. It is true also, that 
44,572 persons had out-door relief — that is, each time relief 
was asked and given, counts as one person, and the same in- 
dividual may, and as is well known to the officers employed 
in these parochial duties, do, become several distinct times 
in the course of the year, recipients ; each time separately 
enumerated as a" person," and are thus counted over and over 
again. As further illustration of these facts, we may add 
that the census of the State of New York for the year 1845, 
records that in the State, with a population of 2,604,495, 
there were but 8,909 paupers ; in the city of New York, with 
a population of 361,102, there were but 1,953 paupers ; that 
is, these numbers were all, by actual count, at the time when 
the officers made their enquiry ; thus at one and about the 
same time there were but 8,909 paupers as proved by this 
census ; a demonstration conclusive, as far as statistics 
need be, of the manner in which this enormous account is 
accumulated. The foreign immigrants after matriculating 
in the alms houses of the city, wander inland and may be- 
come recipients of charity at a dozen different alms houses 
during the year — each time distinctly recorded. We know 
this to be so ; and we also know that in Boston and New 
York, there is a species of quarterly paupers by prescription 
or suffrage, who, upon each of their four regular applica- 
tions are, not being booked as " permanent," recorded as 
" occasional," and one individual thus becomes four " occa- 
sional paupers." And thus one vagrant, one tramper in the 
course of his summer tour throughout the States, may, nor 
have we a doubt in many cases that he does, multiply him- 
self into a dozen " occasional paupers." 

Men who undertake to write about political economy, 
and who use " statistics" as their premises, are generally 
supposed to know something about their constituents, and 
the modus operandi by which these arithmetical results are 
obtained. Mr. Fisher, however, goes no further back than 
the " figures" themselves. In these, then, — it is so easy, — we 
should expect him to be correct, but he blunders like a 



93 



school-boy at his " sums ;" He states that " in 1843 or '4, [ra- 
ther loose this] in the State of New York there were 72,000 
permanent, and the same number of occasional paupers, mak- 
ing a total of 144,000 — one pauper to every seventeen in- 
habitants." For this statement he makes the " Journal of 
Commerce" responsible. Now what are the facts, as officially 
recorded in the report from the Secretary of State, March 14, 
1845 ? as follow ; — the whole number of paupers relieved or 
supported during the year 1844, exclusive of the city and 
county of Albany, was 97,901. Of the whole number thus 
relieved or supported, the number of county paupers was 
90,744, and the number of town paupers 7,217. The num- 
ber of persons temporarily relieved was 97,786, and included 
in the whole number relieved or supported, as first above given. 
The whole number relieved or supported in 1843, including 
the city and county of Albany, was 82,754. Excess in 1844, 
exclusive of Albany, 15,207. 

A slight mistake this — of not quite one half! 

So in regard to Massachusetts. By what authority does 
Mr. Fisher add the 9,817 "relieved out of the Alms houses," 
to the 18,693— making a total of 28,510? None. These are 
included in the original total, as by official document, of 
18,717. A still slighter mistake this, of more than one-third ! 
It is thus Mr. Fisher acquires amounts for the assertion that 
" there are already in New York and Massachusetts, about 
100,000 persons in this condition, [pauperism,] about an 
equal number occasionally so, and they are increasing at 
the rate of 200 per cent, whilst the w^hole population does 
not increase 20 per cent, in ten years." Such misstatements, 
wherever and however they originated, are disgraceful in a 
work purporting to give authentic statistics, or even pre- 
tending to general accuracy. 

Again, Mr. Fisher states that it " is a mistake" to sup- 
pose " that the paupers of Massachusetts and New York 
are principally foreign emigrants." Nevertheless they are 
nearly one half. Of 26,114 paupers in New York in 1844, 
11,679 were foreigners ; of 18,717 paupers in Massachusetts 



94 



in 1847 there were 7,035 foreigners, without including 127 
foreign lunatics, and 1,765 foreign inmates of the Deer Island 
Hospital at Boston ; — the report further states, that " 2,501 
foreign paupers have come into the State within the year 
1847." 

Mr. Fisher then certifies that " throughout the greater part 
of Virginia and Kentucky, pauperism is almost unknown." 
How does he know, and how satisfy his readers ? " I passed 
some time ago the poor house of Campbell county, Kentucky, 
on the opposite side of the river, and there was not a solitary 
inmate, and I have known a populous county in Virginia, 
to have but one." The recorded publicly-supported white 
paupers in Virginia, do not we believe, amount to more than 
3,000. But are there no paupers except those in poor-houses ? 
The native paupers of the Northern States, come mostly 
from the class, the laboring class, represented in the South, 
by slaves. There is one saving clause at the latter end of 
the slave compact — that the master, after appropriating the 
whole active life of the slave, must support him in his old 
age. Is not this pauperism? How many disabled slaves 
upon the separate plantations, are there ? A system prefer- 
able, perhaps, from the peculiar circumstances, to collecting 
them in poor-houses, but still, pauperism. Like this compact 
between the master and the slave-labor, or rather between 
the master and humanity, so is the maxim which governs 
the relations of society and the poor, within the free States ; 
— that it is the duty of the wealth of the State to provide for 
the comfort of all, who through disability, cannot provide 
for themselves. In these States it is more economical to 
the public, and more comfortable to the recipients, to collect 
them into houses, especially during the severity of the 
winters ; and this difference in climate is one great reason 
why, relatively, there appears much more poverty at the 
North. The same degree of exertion which will provide 
competent subsistence in Virginia, will not obtain fuel in 
Massachusetts. But are there no beggars in Virginia — starv- 
ing, miserable whites — despised by the well fed " house nig- 



95 



gers," who, brutish animals as they are themselves, still look 
down upon these whites — and contemptuously — yes contemptu- 
ously — style them " poo' white folk !" We have no inclination 
to narrate our own observation of the horrible destitution we 
have witnessed — not casual, nor exceptional, but continuous 
and uniform ; — we again appeal to Mr. Gregg : — 

" Shall we pass unnoticed the thousands of poor, ignorant? 
degraded white people among us, who, in this land of plenty? 
live in comparative nakedness and starvation ? Many a one 
is reared in proud South Carolina, from birth to manhood, 
who has never passed a month in which he has not, some 
part of the time, been stinted for meat. Many a mother is 
there who will tell you that her children are but scantily 
supplied with bread, and much more scantily with meat, 
and if they be clad with comfortable raiment, it is at the ex- 
pense of these scanty allowances of food. These may be 
startling statements, but they are nevertheless true ; and, 
if not believed in Charleston, the members of our Legisla- 
ture, who have traversed the State in electioneering cam- 
paigns, can attest their truth." 

And this of South Carolina ! the proudest of the Southern 
States, and, for its dimensions, the richest and most prosper- 
ous ! Palliated, softened as this description is, by that sec- 
tional affiliated feeling, which no South Carolinian can ever 
be uninfluenced by, still, no such destitution as even this, 
is known in New England. These people, would be, in Mas- 
sachusetts, sought out by public duty and by private sym- 
pathy ; they would be made comfortable — their necessities 
supplied— and if from the public purse, they would officially 
be styled " paupers ;" but they would " taste meat," and their 
children would be supplied with bread, and be provided with 
a future independent manhood. Now, in pure candor, which 
of these systems is most civilized, most liberal, most humane, 
even in the worst aspect of the pauper system and best of 
the chivalrous ? and in which is the " relative comfort in the 
community the greater ;" where the poor are, by law, comfort- 
ably provided for, or where struggling life fights the unequal 
fight with destitution of mind as well as body, till death 
comes in and draws the battle ? 



96 



Again to Mr. Fisher — 

" Whilst the property of the North is thus compelled to 
contribute to the support of this growing burden, and the 
labor of the North must not only assist in its support also, 
but must work in competition with it, they are subjected to 
another mighty evil, which springs from, or at least is ag- 
gravated by the same causes, and that is crime." 

What does this mean ! Does he covertly congratulate the 
South that it is free from this great and growing burden of 
foreign pauper immigration? He does well. It is a part of 
the system ; not only is the North obliged to work hard to 
sustain her own people, but she has to sustain the whole 
burden of the national charity and the national reputa- 
tion, by fulfilling its professions of sympathy with suffer- 
ing humanity at large, and her " system," enables her to 
do it. We know of no declaimers so fond of boasting 
the hospitality of the United States — of lauding the 
genius of her institutions, which open an asylum for the op- 
pressed of all other lands; — none so liberal of invitations to 
the " famished and down-trodden millions" of the European 
States, to come and share the fatness of our land, and the 
blessing of our " democratic institutions ;" — none so gener- 
ous, as the abstractionists of the South. Now, good, kind, 
generous Southern men, why don't you take your share ? It 
is almost too grave a subject to be lightly treated, but the 
position, which the South occupies in this regard, must ex- 
cuse the character of the illustration. It constantly reminds 
us of Beau Hickman's story, " how he rung in on ' the 
Count.' " He invited " the Count" to dine, and ordered all 
the " luxuries of the season," and a bottle of every vintage 
in the cellar. When the bill came in, it was handed to 
" the Count. " " Dis is not mine ; my friend have call for 
all dees tings." " Exactly ! you can't expect me to do it all, 
you know. I call, you pay, and that's what I think a devilish 
fair and gentlemanly division of the responsibility." South 
Carolina and Virginia " call"— -Massachusetts and New York 
" pay." 

We will not quote what Mr. Fisher says, about the 



97 



" crime" of the Northern States, and the amount of which 
is, that in Boston " one person out of every 14 males, and 
one out of every 28 females is arrested annually for criminal 
offences ;" that " in New York the proportion is about the 
same," and that " there is four times the amount of crime 
in proportion to the ivhite population in New York," that there 
is " in Virginia." Such statements as these operate as a 
fraud upon the uninformed reader. Violations of those so- 
cial regulations specifically termed " laws," are always com- 
mitted by that body of persons — they may be termed a class 
— who have the least interest in preserving their integrity. 
In the South, negroes are whipped for the same offences, 
which in New York, send the convict to Blackwell's Island 
or to Sing-Sing. For offences of greater magnitude, the ne- 
gro, if free, may be sold as a slave, and if a slave, he may be 
sold out of the State. A good method, much better than 
that of the Northern States, for getting rid of crime — clear- 
ing the State, and avoiding the expense of subsistence. We 
ask examination to the accommodating method by which 
Mr. Fisher arrives at the proportion of criminals to the pop- 
ulation, by assuming that each arrest is of a distinct " person." 
It is in cities, every where, as it is on board-ship — the flog- 
gings count up— and yet it is only about four men out of a 
hundred who take the whole- 
Let any planter recollect or record the punishments that he 
is obliged to give ; are not the " criminals" few? yet if each 
flogging was to be recorded, and apportioned to the number 
of his servants, would it not appear that he was a very 
cruel task-master ? There is a class — there are a few, who 
get the whole. In the same way, if anybody will take the 
trouble to examine the police reports of any city, he will 
find that five out of six are " old offenders." Collected in 
cities — all their faults noted — checked like bondsmen, the 
proportion of crime, particularly that of intoxication, which 
covers four-fi ths of the arrests, must always appear larger 
than in the plantations — in country life, where no record is 
kept, and where the observation of individuals does not ex- 
12 



98 



tend beyond the limits of the immediate neighbourhood ; the 
very publicity to which all vice in cities is exposed, operates 
as a check and restraint which cannot be felt in the country. 

^ ^ ^ 

We have thus far accompanied Mr. Fisher through all the 
statistic allegations in regard to the relative prosperity of the 
North and the South — and the operation of the two systems, 
so far as they are indicated by their results. Here, our re- 
view ends. It would be now no difficult matter to enforce 
it by accumulating authentic statistics, which should prop- 
erly contrast the two systems. But such a course was no 
part of our original design. Our declared intention was to 
" confine ourselves to the examination and elucidation of 
the statistics brought forward by Mr. Fisher," and, in the 
performance of this, although we have condensed much, and 
omitted more, which we could have desired to say, we have, 
we fear, already far exceeded reasonable limits. We stated 
in the beginning, our confidence " that every substantive 
fact brought forward as such, with its accompanying qualifi- 
cations, is as capable of demonstration, as any one isolated 
fact soever and we now appeal to our reader, if his pa- 
tience has holden out thus far, to declare whether the quali- 
fications are not the most material part of the representation. 
The remainder of the essay is occupied with the discussion 
of the moral of slavery, and the different plans proposed 
for emancipation — the rights " of the South" to the territory 
acquired from Mexico; — the intellectual and educational sys- 
tems of the North and South contrasted, and then collated 
with results — with the exhibition of the religious tempera- 
ment as developed in the distinct sections. The examin- 
ation of these, being, as Mr. Fisher says, " intangible," that 
is, unattempted to be supported by statistics, does not come 
within the proposed province of our present criticism. The 
subject is, however, by no means closed, and it is not im- 
probable, that the very superficial speculations of Mr. Fisher, 
in these regards, will receive our further consideration. 



CORRECTIONS. 



Page 9 — 14th line from bottom, for " of relative " read 11 of this relative." 
" 19— 2nd line from top, for " 1840 " read " 1844." 
" 20 — 4th line from top, for " their laws" read " her laws." 
" 27 — 6th line from bottom, after " village " read 44 of equal property." 
« 44— 1st line, for " that it " read •« that is, it." 

44 55 — 10th line from top, for " old food, oats or " read " old food oats, — or " 

" 69 — 4th line from top, for " city " read " Union." 

44 85— 4th line from top, for 44 amount " read 44 movement." 

It is not improbable that other inaccuracies may have escaped observation; but they 
are believed to be few and unimportant. 




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